The Marauders Kiss
by sweetprofanities
Summary: Sirius Black was not the school player. Remus Lupin was more than a polite mute. Peter Pettigrew actually gave them all a run for their money at times. And James Potter... did actually live and breathe Lily Evans. That much will always be true. As well as the foursome being the most troublesome boys at Hogwarts. Now imagine being the prefect that had to trail along behind them.
1. Chapter 1

You're eleventh birthday isn't the most spectacular of birthday's. You hit double digits the previous year. You haven't even progressed to pre-teen, let alone actual full-blown I-hate-my-parents, no-one-understands-me, teenager yet. It's one of those nothing years. Like nineteen, twenty-two and everything after thirty. Nothing particularly special. Well… for muggles that is.

'Stop pushing me mum!' Aaliyah Adams snapped moodily at her mother. She happened to be the apple of her father's eye and the only grandchild on her paternal grandparents had.

'Don't you get snippy with me, hurry up and get through the door miss. Do you want to be late for your first day of school?' Her mother snapped back. Don't take this exchange as Kanika Adam's, little Aaliyah's mother, not thinking the world of her tiny daughter. She did. But the two of them were so strikingly similar, that even at ten years of age, Aaliyah and her mother tended to butt heads.

'Aren't you supposed to _love_ me?' Aaliyah bit back coolly as her mum firmly pressed her hands against her daughter's lower back, edging her through the doorway. Aaliyah just dramatically flopped backwards onto her mother at her attempts to move her along and Kanika struggled to grab her under the arms, thanks to the massive bump growing by the day on her front.

'For god's sake, you're more trouble than any other ten year old I've known! What did I do to deserve you?' Kanika groaned but decided to pay her daughter back for the fake fall by itching her hands around where they were resting in Aaliyah's armpits. Aaliyah nearly jumped three feet in the air to get away, screaming. 'Get back here!' Kanika laughed chasing Aaliyah as fast as her pregnant form would allow back into the house where she was retreating.

'Come on Ali-bear, you can't be late.' Christian swooped his tiny daughter up before she could get to the stair case, from where he had just descended. 'The train waits for no one.' He smiled, a twinkle in his bright blue eyes as he watched Kanika envelope their daughter in his arms and begin tickling her with no relent.

Once Kanika finally stopped and Aaliyah's giggle-screams subsided, Ali let out a brief sigh and stared up at her parents. They were her best friends in the whole world, 'so what you're saying Dad, is that if I keep this up, I won't have to go to that hell-hole?' She asked fluttering her lashes briefly with a cheesy smile.

'Aaliyah Adams!' Her mother reacted instantly, her bright green eyes snapped wide open from their mirth induced slits, 'I did not raise you to use such language.'

'Well I told you those outings with Dad would do me no good.' She countered, smiling cheekily at her father who was shaking his head urgently, eyes wide, quite truly worried.

'Christian Adams! You did not use such a word in front of your ten year old daughter?' Kanika rounded on him.

'I would _never_.' He replied, mockingly shocked. 'Kani, I thought you'd know me better by now, I am a perfect gentlemen, and such language would never leave these lips.'

'He also used, bloody, fricking, and shi-' The young girl was cut off here when her father's hand swung from underneath her and wrapped over her mouth while he smiled back to his wife, uncannily similar to the smile she had produced moments before.

'She's lying dear. That was Evelyn next door who taught her that tardy language I assure you.' His wife just huffed up a bit before lurching up and back over to the threshold where a large leather trunk was waiting for them.

You could see the smile in Aaliyah's eyes even though her mouth was covered as her father leant down towards her, 'are you trying to get me killed? It's not nice living without a father.' He whispered and she giggled.

Aaliyah Lydia Adams was ten years old, but very soon to be eleven. While to muggles your eleventh year of life held no real significance, to a wizarding family such as theirs it marked the year Aaliyah began her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The year was 1972 and Aaliyah, who was one of the smallest ten year olds her parents had ever seen, wasn't exactly keen on travelling so very far from home just to go to school. As it was, her father worked for the Ministry of Magic as an Obliviator in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, he was rather gifted with his talents for memory charms. Thanks to this he had been offered a job on the opposite side of the world, while Kanika was pregnant with Aaliyah, after an Antipodean Opaleye dragon went renegade and murdered several kangaroo's in full view of a town of muggles. The ministry deemed this a problem and needed someone stationed there for good measure. This opportunity provided Christian with a hefty paycheck each month, but more importantly, a very large old house and for the soon to be parents to live in. So with a baby on the way they couldn't pass the offer up and moved from London all the way to Australia.

However, with Christian's family scattered around Europe and Kanika's through the Middle East, both had attended Hogwarts and wanted their daughter receiving the same fine schooling they had.

As Christian placed Aaliyah down onto her feet she tried desperately to shove her mounds of matted honey curls out of her face, she was almost the perfect mixture of her parents. As her father's bloodlines went back through Holland and more west of England, his features were very light. Bright blue eyes, fair skin, tall and lean. Kanika on the other hand had most of her family coming from places much more exotic, such as Egypt and the Middle East. This meant her skin was a very rich chocolate brown, her hair consisted of tight curly black spirals that fell long down her back and her eyes, contrary to her darker features, a beautiful bright green that was shared all through her family. Aaliyah inherited those eyes, but sometimes you couldn't quite put your finger on whether they were blue or green. Aaliyah's skin was a profit from her strange mix, she tanned exceptionally well even though her natural tone was probably a little closer to that of her fathers. She took after her father in the way of figure, as her mother certainly had a very womanly shape despite her height (just barely clearing 4 foot 11 the poor dear) but then again, most ten year old girls usually were quiet lean. The more womanly traits came later.

Kanika, who was now revealing an insistently large bump, was trying her best to bend down and fiddle with Aaliyah's trunk. Christian chastised her and quickly made his way over to help. Aaliyah couldn't wait until her brand new baby sister was born. She really didn't want to go away to this poppycock school where the climate was all different and she'd have to wear _layers_. She wanted to stay home with her mum and dad and her cat. But her parents were forcing her, even if Snowball was going.

Their home was a very grand old castle type dwelling. It had lots of quarters and hiding places and what was, really, an excessive amount of room. It was fantastic fun for a child to play all day in. Being set high on a hill it was very far out of the way of just about everything. This is what led to Aaliyah never interacting much with other children. Naturally she was scared out of her mind at the thought. The only other person remotely her age that Aaliyah had regular access to was her next-door neighbor (who lived on a farm at least a fifteen minute walk down that very large hill away) Evelyn Grey. She was two years younger than Aaliyah and Aaliyah wasn't allowed to hang around her overly often. This was mainly due to the fact that Evelyn was a muggle. Aaliyah on the other hand most certainly was not and her mother was furious when her father had to modify the tiny girls memory after Aaliyah had brought her over one day to show her the new cauldron set she'd gotten for her birthday and the pepper-up potion she was brewing.

While Christian was an only child, meaning Aaliyah got very spoilt by her paternal grandparents, Kanika had three sisters, two older and one younger, and four brothers, three older and one younger, that all lived scattered between England and Egypt respectively. Aaliyah had cousins and second cousins and third cousins by the bucket load on her mum's side but she hardly ever saw them. Kanika had informed Aaliyah a few months ago that, Misha and Nay, the only cousins Aaliyah's age that she ever had contact with, would be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also. Just thinking about the trip made her antsy.

'I don't want to go!' She ended up yelled at her parents. Kanika turned her attention from the trunk as she smacked Christian away from it (being as short as she was she didn't enjoy people offering to help her with anything) and Christian looked up as he'd almost surrendered trying to help.

'Come here Ali-bear.' Christian held his arms out and his somber daughter walked over to him, wiping her hurryingly dampening eyes. Kanika waddled over to them and began calmly curling Aaliyah's hair round her fingers as Christian rubbed her back in a very fatherly way. The three of them stood together for a while, silent. This had been all Ali had ever really known. She adored her parents, and her mother was due to deliver within a few months. This was a dreadful time to be shipped off. What on earth could be so bloody fancy at that stupid school anyway, Aaliyah thought?

'I really don't want to go,' she whispered again threw silent sobs, 'what if I don't make any friends?'

'You? Not make friends? Impossible. Everyone is going to fall in love with you Ali-bear.' Her father reassured her, pulling his tiny daughter close into his chest and swaying her slightly. Aaliyah was a very small child, she probably shouldn't have fit so neatly into her father's form at a day from eleven. She probably looked closer to nine as it was, but seeing how tiny her mother was, it wasn't much of a surprise.

'Darling I know it seems scary and daunting but you have to go. And certainly not because we don't want you here, but because Hogwarts is the best school around. We want you to grow up to be the best that you can be.' Kanika relayed placing a hand on her own back to steady herself and ease the pain she'd now become quite accustom to from the weight carried in her front.

'But I want to stay here Mama. I want to see my sister when she's born. I don't want to go all the way to Scotland to stay in some stupid haunted castle with a bunch of people I don't even know.' Aaliyah looked up from Christian's arms and down to her mum's belly.

'Ali, dear, did you think you wouldn't see the baby when it's born?' Kanika smiled warmly at her daughter's frightened expression, 'is that why you're so upset?'

'Part of the reason.' Aaliyah admitted.

'Oh my gorgeous girl, we'll send word straight away to Dumbledore to send you home via floo so that you can meet-'

'Him.' Christian interrupted with an air of cheek, in an attempt to cheer Aaliyah up.

'Her!' Aaliyah argued. Aaliyah and her father had established a war over whether the baby was going to be a boy or a girl the moment Kanika and Christian came into her room and told her she was going to be a big sister.

Kanika sighed over the _'Him.' _and _'Her.'_s being throw about the place, 'I'm so sorry darling, but this is what you're to be born into.' She rubbed her stomach in a circular motion.

'Him.' Christian uttered finally under his breath, making sure to have the last word. Aaliyah couldn't help but laugh.

Furrowing her brows, 'Is Dumbledore a professor at Hogwarts?' Aaliyah enquired quizzically.

'He's the headmaster there now Ali-bear, you'll be seeing a lot of him I assume.' Christian replied. Albus Dumbledore was one of the few people outside of her family members that Aaliyah knew relatively well. He was an old friend of Christian's grandparents and visited from time to time on what Aaliyah expected was mostly Ministry business. This is why she assumed that Mister Dumbledore had worked for the Ministry. She had no idea he was running a school. It picked her mood up slightly. She very much liked Mister Dumbledore, he always had candy with him when he came around and his smile made her happy and warm.

'So I still have to go?' she pouted, although knowing she'd been fighting a lost cause from the beginning.

'Yes, dear I'm afraid so.' Kanika nodded. She may have been tiny woman, but no one argued with her when she got her head around something. Kanika was known to have gotten positively scary when she was angry. Working as a healer most of her life had given her a certain edge in the way of getting what she wanted and she claimed authority over most. Even if deep down she was just as soft as her husband, if not softer.

'But don't worry, you'll be home for Christmas, or even before when this little tyke decides to come along.' Christian explained standing Aaliyah up and rubbing her shoulders affectionately.

'But for now it's time to find Snowball so we can get to the Leakey Cauldron on time sweet pea.' Aaliyah decided to give up the battle for now and relent to her mother's wishes, running over to the large stone staircase to try and locate her fluffy white cat and collect anything she might have forgotten.

* * *

><p>'Quick, quick! Christian you always manage to make us late!' Kanika chastised as she waddled through the gushes of people streaming through kings cross-station. Even with Kanika being very pregnant, Aaliyah's tiny legs still couldn't keep up with her mother's quick strides. Christian, seeing her predicament, scooped Aaliyah up onto his shoulders and ran behind Kanika who was pushing a trolley with Aaliyah's trunk and Snowball in his cat cage, a very grumpy look on his face. Considering his breed however, he could have been quite happy for all they knew.<p>

She stopped abruptly and turned to both of them. Aaliyah looked left and right to see no trains as of yet. This being her first time to the station, as she'd had no older brothers or sisters to send off, she had no clue why her mother would be suggesting her father run directly at a bloody wall.

'Well... in you go!' Her mother ordered as Christian lifted Aaliyah off his shoulders and placed her in front of his tall body.

'In where?' She asked, her bewilderment mounting by the passing second. Christian took her hand and walked over to a pillar with two signs indicating to the left was platform ten and the right was platform nine. Aaliyah squinted slightly in wonder when her father looked around briefly and stood her in front of a specific side of the pillar.

'Just lean on the wall with me Al.' He smiled and she did as she was told.

'Merlin, dad, a bit of bloody warning would be nice.' Aaliyah stood, brushing herself off from her fall into this new concealed platform. He laughed at his baby girl's escalating cheek as Kanika came through with the trolley.

'Will you just let me take it Kani?' Christian wastefully tried to argue with his headstrong wife, yet again, as she just swatted him away.

'No!' She recoiled from his outreached arms, 'just because I'm carrying your fat child doesn't mean I'm incapable of pushing a trolley _Christian_.' She said steering the trolley away from Christian's grasp as he made a move to take it.

Aaliyah laughed now. She loved seeing her dad brought down to size by such a tiny woman. She knew it wasn't weakness, but rather intelligence. Getting the tiny form of Kanika Adams angry would be a very, _very_ bad idea. Very bad indeed. Christian just rolled his eyes towards Aaliyah when Kanika turned her back.

'I saw that.' She announced, walking quickly towards the scarlet steam train as she spotted a familiar face.

'Only Merlin knows how.' Christian said making sure Kanika was out of earshot and Aaliyah laughed as she retook her place atop his shoulders once more.

'Lula dear how are you?' Christian asked politely as they join Kanika who had located Aaliyah's youngest aunt. Aaliyah smiled down at her from her perch and Lula smiled back kindly. Lula was Aaliyah's favourite aunty, mainly due to the fact that she was the only one Aaliyah really saw. She and her family would come to Australia to visit once a year over the summer, which happened to be winter where Aaliyah lived. Lula looked almost exactly the same as Kanika, however just slightly taller, which Kanika despised. They were the closest out of their mass of brothers and sisters as they were born merely eleven months apart.

'Hi Mishi!' Aaliyah waved happily to her favourite cousin who was nervously clutching her mother's arm.

'Hey Lili!' She waved up, releasing her grip as she noticed someone her own age she actually knew. Christian placed Aaliyah down and she threw Misha into the biggest hug she could manage. Misha was a little taller than Aaliyah. She was actually the right size for her age. Misha had the same dark complexion that her mother and aunty bore and the same green family eyes. Her hair was dark brown and extremely long, hanging in a straight sheet down her back.

'Well girls, it's time to hop on the train.' Christian smirked at the amusing sight before them. Aaliyah and Misha had broken into high-pitched giggles when Misha's brother walked over to the little group that had been formed and tripped over his trouser leg.

'What's _up_ Nay?' Misha asked, she and Aaliyah were muffling their fits of laughter as Nay picked himself up and brushed himself off. Nay was the same height as his sister and had cropped curly black hair and dark skin. He enjoyed teasing his sister and cousin when he came on holidays so this was an opportunity of a lifetime for the young girls.

'Send us a post card from your next _trip._' Aaliyah added and now even Christian chuckled. For a ten year old the joke wasn't half bad, but he quickly stopped at the glare emitted by Kanika.

'Shut up squirts you'll get your own back.' Nay bit out waving to a new friend of his a little while away.

'I believe it's you who's getting his own back.' Aaliyah accused him. Nay just shrugged, fixed his curls, bade his farewells to the small family gathering and left to board the train with his new friends. Although Nay was the same age as the two, being a fraternal twin with his sister Misha, somehow boys were a lot more outgoing than girls at their age, and so finding new friends seemed a much easier feat.

Misha and Nay were typical siblings. Nay would tease Misha and she'd cry and complain to their mother, but if anyone else would tease Misha, Nay would flare up and protect her. Aaliyah didn't, and rightly couldn't understand how it worked. If someone teased you then they didn't like you in her opinion. You can't call someone an annoying little brat and then turn around a tell someone else off for doing it Aaliyah thought. She'd never understood that though because she'd never had any sibling rivalry. Well not as of yet anyhow. The entire concept on inter-social contact with kids her own age Aaliyah was completely indistinct to. She was much better at holding a conversation with her parents and their older friends. But adults are always quite frank with children, so Aaliyah never learned how to distinguish a person's signs through body language or the way they reacted to you. She never had to figure out that sometimes when someone was upset and told you to 'go away', for instance, it really meant 'please stay'.

'Okay let's get these blasted things on and find you both a compartment. Are you ready girls?' Aunty Lula asked levitating the two trunks from their trolleys.

'I just have to use the bathroom.' Aaliyah proclaimed letting go of Misha's waist and looking around. She spotted the sign instantly. 'I'll be right back!'

'Okay dear, don't talk to strangers.' Kanika called out as Aaliyah walked away from them and merely nodded back her reply.

* * *

><p>Aaliyah stood on her highest tiptoes to try and reach the sink and only just managed to turn the tap on after lathering her hands. She jumped up trying to see what the mirror reflected, but it was useless. All she could make out were the top of her light curls, her forehead and green eyes.<p>

She sighed, 'I wish I were taller.' Cursing her mother's genes she shuffled out the swinging door. To get into the bathrooms of platform nine and three quarters, one had to enter a first swinging door then choose their pathway. Girls to your left, boys to your right and there was also a door straight ahead saying something Aaliyah couldn't read yet. She thought must have been for other creatures. After exiting the girls bathroom with an extra sigh, retracing her steps back down the small corridor of the lavatories, she was suddenly bowled backwards when some idiot flung the swinging door open so fast Aaliyah had no idea what hit her.

'You silly brat!' she cursed with the best swears she could remember whilst rubbing her upper back.

'Gee, such harsh words from such a little girl. Truly, I'm wounded.' A boy's voice washed over Aaliyah. She looked up to see a boy not much older than herself clutching his chest in a mock astonishment. He had midnight black hair that fell into his face quite neatly and flicked at his collar. He was a lot taller than she was and he reached out a hand to help Aaliyah up. Aaliyah looked at his face and saw his grey eyes smiling down at her.

'You're joking right?' She mused in her light voice raising her brows at his offer. 'First you knock me over, then you call me little, then you don't even apologize? Get out of my way.' Aaliyah helped herself up and pushed straight past the boy and stormed right out of the corridor. On her way out she knocked into someone in her blind fury and the figure stumbled a bit.

'Whoa, watch it whirl wind.' This new boy joked, steadying Aaliyah as his stump of a friend laughed at the comment. She looked up at the boy who saved her the humiliation of a second fall that day. He was quite the scrawny kid, but still taller than she was as he had quite long legs. His messy brown hair cropped up everywhere and he wore a pair of thin round glasses over his hazel eyes. He smiled at Aaliyah and she unwittingly apologized.

'It's nothing. Just look up when you're storming through innocent bystanders next time?' The second, stout boy laughed again. Aaliyah looked over to him and liked that he wasn't much taller than herself. He was large and squat and his facial features reminded Aaliyah of the mouse she'd found Snowball torturing last month, with his long pointed nose and mousy colourless hair. Her attention suddenly averted to the boy next to him. He was holding onto a sling bag that was over his shoulder and had no expression on his lips. If Kanika thought Aaliyah was skinny it was nothing compared to this boy. She would have had a heart attack, it was like he was made of nothing but skin pulled over bone. His eyes were a pretty amber hue and slightly sunken looking and his light brown hair was brushed to the side to keep off his face. He also had several very noticeable, long, thin scars on his neck and forearms.

'James Potter at your service!' the boy in glasses flung a hand forward and Aaliyah jumped back before realizing all he wanted to do was greet her.

'A-Aaliyah Adams.' She offered back, shaking it.

'These strapping lads before you are none other than the great Remus Lupin, boy of intelligence beyond belief,' he indicated to the sickly boy 'and Peter Pettigrew-' the stump laughed. Aaliyah raised an eyebrow wondering how he managed to laugh at his own bloody name. Why on earth would you laugh at that?

'-the boy of immense stupidity beyond all comprehension.' A voice came from behind them. Aaliyah swung around to face her attacker once more. Her baby lips pursed and she glared at him as if he'd stolen her favourite cauldron and melted it down in front of her.

_What a little turd. I certainly don't want to get to know you. You don't even know how to say sorry._ Aaliyah thought filling the airwaves with her negative energy. But she couldn't glare for long because in a bustle to get onto the train people around her were knocking into any and everything they came across. Someone collided with James again and he stumbled forwards crashing into little Ali.

'Oh, so sorry milady.' James smiled at Aaliyah apologetically.

'Oh, _so sorry **milaaaady**_.' the other boy mocked and Peter snorted with laughter. 'He's an unforgivable klutz this on-' the unknown boy Aaliyah had yet to be introduced to interrupted. Everything about him made her want to punch him. He had a haughty air of superiority surrounding him that was intoxicating, not to mention the way he was teasing the nice boys she'd been talking to. Aaliyah was too young to overlook his attitude as boys will be boys as most people did for twelve year olds.

'You're the klutz!' Aaliyah shouted before allowing him to finish. She turned without saying goodbye to the others and stormed off to find her parents. Aaliyah now wanted to go to this school even less.

Once she located the others near-by she argued uselessly with her parents about staying home. Their reaction was shoving Aaliyah in a compartment with Misha and kissing her goodbye.


	2. Chapter 2

'Move!' Aaliyah snapped at the innocent first year blocking her path to the west-wing courtyard. He, as well as a good part of the school, was watching the commotion taking place before him.

'Sod off Snivellus, why don't you go make love to your Arithmancy book, that's if it would have you.' A much older looking James Potter spat at the greasy black haired, slightly shorter figure of Severus Snape. His hateful-looking dark eyes surveyed James but seemed to decide against something at the last moment. Snape was bent over gathering his strewn books from the grass where they had no doubt been knocked to by a certain unruly duo.

'Potter! Black!' a girl's voice that Aaliyah recognized as Lily Evans' cried.

'You two stupid blood traitors think you're so _clever_. I can't wait for you to get a taste of your own medicine.' Snape muttered under his breath. He wasn't the boldest of Slytherin's, yet he seemed to be the butt of a lot of Gryffindor's jinxes. Mainly the two before him currently.

'Well personally I can't wait for someone to hit your nose with an engorgio charm and have it swell up to ten times the size of a normal one but- oh wait- that already happened didn't it Snivelly?' Sirius grinned from beside James, wands raised and ready while Snape got back to his feet.

'Sirius Black you will keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you.' Ali pushed by the remaining students in her way, coming into the clearing and getting a better look at exactly what was going on. She was just in time to see Sirius' wand shoot out a non-verbal jinx that sent Snape flying back down. Sirius's comment had gotten the crowd in the outdoor courtyard roaring with laughter. Ali just rolled her eyes and made her way over to the form of Snape, flat on his back, and proceeded to lift him up irately by the front of his cloak.

'I'm not going to deduct points from you two because I know whatever it was _you_-' Aaliyah spat, picking up the last stray book and shoving it carelessly into the greasy haired boys arms '-said to get them going would have probably have merited a retort.' Ali's focus was drawn over to the young woman providing James with a formidable glower. Her thick auburn hair was tied back into a high ponytail and her emerald almond shaped eyes shot him another fierce look before James decided to call it quits for now. Lily Evans was beautiful in such a natural way that Aaliyah really couldn't blame James for trying to secure a date with her. It did seem to Ali though that Lily just didn't fancy the guy. It was sad really. The red head briskly told her group of friends to go and that she'd catch up with them. Both of the Gryffindor sixth year's, Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald, exchanged looks then made their way from the courtyard and presumably up to class.

Four full years had passed since Aaliyah's journey to Hogwarts. She'd found out that the boys she'd met on platform nine and three quarters, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, were all in the grade above herself. The boy's names of course were all very common knowledge. The amount of trouble they got themselves into you'd have to be literally deaf and blind to miss them. She didn't have much bad to say about the other three of the infamous group besides being slightly peeved at losing the house cup invariably thanks to their knack for mischief. Sirius Black, the fourth member of the clan, was forever stuck in Aaliyah's mind as the boy that had knocked her down and instead of apologizing, had attempted to make a wise-crack, _twice. _He quickly became Aaliyah's least favourite student. It didn't help that he seemed to gain popularity by the year simply by being a git to anyone near he and his friends for the sake of a laugh.

After going through the usual motions after the Hogwarts Express; crossing the black lake, being introduced to their Game's Keeper, Hagrid and their Transfiguration Professor, McGonagall. After making their way into the great hall that night four years ago, Aaliyah found herself sorted into Gryffindor House. It wasn't much of a surprise. It was the same house as both her parents, they'd met at school, and not to mention going back even further. Aaliyah's lineage on both sides were magical, going back far enough than she really cared to find out. Neither of her families were overly set on blood purity anymore unlike some of the more self-righteous ones. But back in the day they probably would have been, she wasn't entirely sure, nor did she particularly care.

Her cousin Misha had been placed in Ravenclaw, which stung Aaliyah a little as she was the only person she'd bothered to talk to on the train ride. Most of the other first years had formed their friends in that space of time. Nay was placed in Gryffindor, but he'd made friends with the four other boys that he shared a dorm with and Aaliyah wasn't particularly loquacious towards boys at her age. The longest conversation she'd had with any of them had been with James that day as it was. She spent the start of term feast alone that year, picking at her food and looking around trying to take as much of everything in as she could. It wasn't such a bad thing. The Hall was magnificent with its enchanted celling and levitating candles, not to mention the ghosts gliding by and the cheery, light atmosphere.

Being an only child back then, with little to no social skills with children her own age, Aaliyah hadn't been quite sure how to introduce herself to the girls she shared a dorm with. Instead she decided to keep to herself. Generally she was rather quiet, she chose to sit back in the shadows and quietly joke about her peers to herself without them knowing. People watching was one of her favourite past times. She certainly made herself laugh, and after a time, she did get used to it. In turn she rather started to like it. She sat alone in classes which only proved to make her grades astounding. She sat alone in the library to get her homework done, as the common room was usually far too loud. When she did find herself in the common room, she usually sat alone with Snowball in an out of the way chair and read books, letters from her parents or practiced simple spells.

Aaliyah and Misha only had a total of two classes together, but they were still good friends. Misha _had_ actually befriended her dorm-mates though, and so had more of a social life than Ali. But they still chatted in the classes they shared and spent time together on the weekends. So Ali's father had been wrong after all, she hadn't enchanted her school, nor did she have friends by the bucket load. She never let this on to him however, as she did enjoy learning, and so got used to biding them farewell at the start of term. Instead she rather enjoyed her holidays, whereas most of the other students were strictly the opposite.

Don't think that Aaliyah was one to go unnoticed. Far from it. At school, even the quietest of the children are still known. When you return year after year, you tend to learn everyone's name. And Aaliyah wasn't always silent. She picked the right times to speak up, helping others out or rather, yelling at Sirius Black whenever she could. As her grades were always high, and she took extreme satisfaction in getting one of the schools most prevalent tricksters into trouble at any chance she could, the beginning of the year saw Ali awarded the title of prefect for Gryffindor house.

'Unbelievable.' Aaliyah sent Snape in the opposite direction making sure he was gone before turning to face James and Lily, with Sirius not far off. 'Can you two manage to keep yourselves out of trouble for more than an hour? I'm starting to wonder how you've made it this far without being expelled.'

'Don't be daft Adams, I'm practically a saint. You know Snivellus started it.' James gave the back of his hair and quick once over with his hand and nodded like that ended the matter. He had his mature voice on again, something that only seemed to pop up when Lily was around.

'Grow up Potter, you're far from a saint.' Lily shook her head obviously contemplating whether or not this warranted detention. Had this been happening a mere six months ago, James probably would have received one. Severus and Lily were quite fond of each other, that is, until the silly git called her a mudblood in front of practically the whole school towards the end of last year. Since then Lily, although not stooping to her admirers' level of outwardly hating Snape, didn't seem to come to his aid nearly as often. Snape wasn't anyone's favourite student, except maybe Slughorn, their potions master. And even Slughorn preferred Lily over Snivellus.

'He deserves everything he gets after last term Evans. I'm just trying to make sure he knows to stop bothering you! What with constantly following you around and trying to tell you he's sorry for calling you… a… you-know-what.'

'For heaven's sake Potter, don't try and make out like five months down the track every jinx you send his way is for my benefit. As for the following me around, I've gotten kind of used to it lately thanks to you.' Lily exasperated, rolling her eyes.

'Give it up Prongs, these 'dates' as you like to call them really aren't working in your favour. I'm starting to think Snivelly might actually have a better chance with Evans than you.' This remark from Sirius got the exact same reply from both James and Lily simultaneously. Only with the slight change of 'Padfoot!' to 'Black!' at the end. Sirius just cracked a grin while slumping down onto the slightly icy grass and taking in the rare spot of November sunshine. It gave his midnight black hair the most wondrously glossy look as it fell effortlessly around his face.

'Black get up, I do believe you have a class to get to.' Aaliyah raised an eyebrow at a few nearby girls all smiling in Sirius' direction. It was something he never seemed to notice.

'Adams, Adams, Adams. Have you learnt my timetable? Is that why you always seem to be close by when I'm getting myself into sticky situations?' There was such a calmness to the way Sirius spoke that one would think he had not a care in the world. Nay, he seemed to be almost bored by just about everything that wasn't threatening to get him into a large amount of trouble. Sirius Black was a thrill seeker if there ever was one, and he chose exactly the right company to keep him occupied.

'Oh yes, that's exactly my kind of fun. Let's follow the foulest boy at school around and just _accidently_ run into him every time he decides to jinx a fourth year for fun!' Aaliyah flicked her wand muttering _Mobilicorpus _to get him up into a standing position and James lost his previously adopted cool demeanour at the sight and burst into laughter.

'Merlin Adams, you bruise his ego any further and he'll be moping for days.' James got a swift punch to the arm from Sirius at that, who was trying his best to hide the embarrassment on his face at being levitated by a fifth year. Aaliyah noticed James stand up a little straighter when he saw Lily looking at him, subduing his laughter.

'I mean it you two! To class!' Aaliyah couldn't for the life of her figure out why they refused to listen. She was a prefect! This wasn't time to have a heart-warming chat! Classes were fifteen minutes off starting and she was about to be late herself at this rate. James had grabbed Sirius's jumper and pulled him away, laughter still shaking his body slightly.

Lily turned to Aaliyah with a bright smile, 'that was brilliant Adams, Dumbledore knew what he was doing when he made you prefect this year didn't he.' Lily was one of the handful of Gryffindor's that Ali spoke to, and this was mainly due to her also being a prefect. They didn't talk much, being in separate year levels. But at prefect meetings and such, she was Ali's first choice to sit by when she could.

'Remind me again why we didn't give them detention?' Ali sighed as they too made their way inside the castle walls. Lily made a joke about how lovely it felt dishing the boys out punishments just as they rounded the ground floor corner, towards the entrance hall and the grand stair case. They immediately spotted Sirius. He wasn't far off with his wand out, jinxing a nearby drinking fountain to spray a hefty amount of water into Rabastan Lestrange's face as Rabastan tried uselessly to stop it.

'**Sirius Black! Detention!**' Aaliyah shouted, Lily by her side flicking her wand at Sirius and disarming him. He turned to them in mock concern, a pout plastered to his lips and his grey eyes wide almost demanding sympathy. James on the other hand seemed to freeze completely after whipping around to stare at Aaliyah and Lily, almost as if he were a deer caught in headlights.

'Come on Adams. Slytherin's aren't people, they're target practice.' James, relaxing finally, snickered at Sirius's comment a little too loudly. The two of them were invading each other's personal space so profoundly you'd think they were intimate lovers. Everyone at the school was rather used to it by now though and never paid much attention to the way the boys were glued at the hip. Or sharing an armchair in the common room. Or leaning on each other in classes. And it didn't stop at just James and Sirius, Aaliyah was currently scanning the foyer quickly in search for the two others that made up the school's most common detention company. Remus and Peter however were out of sight.

'Honestly guys, Professor Babbling is going to give you a detention too if you don't get a move on.' Lily warned. She wasn't nearly as full on as Aaliyah when it came to the school rules. But she was a far better student than the two before them.

'Adams wasn't serious.' Sirius nodded knowingly to James as they gathered their stuff together and made their way over to Lily to retrieve his wand.

'Seriously, Sirius. I think she **seriously** was seriously, _serious_. …seriously.' Both the boys snickered at this, which Aaliyah found odd. Why laugh when someone is quite clearly making fun of you?

'Contrary to popular belief Black, I don't believe you are Merlin's gift to us all. You _will _be attending detention for that little stunt.' She was beginning to form a headache, something she was finding more and more common now that she had become something of an authority figure to these boys. How did McGonagall do this?

'Adams I know you want to get me alone in a classroom but there are more eloquent ways of asking, perhaps just saying 'Sirius, I'd really love a good snog if you wouldn't mind?''

'D- DOUBLE DETENTION BLACK!' Ali could literally feel her blood boiling. Her ears were getting hot and her hand flashed upwards brandishing her wand. Even Lily was holding back laughter now and James snapped Sirius away before he could dig himself a deeper hole.

'Sincerest apologies Adams!' Was all Aaliyah heard from James as he and Sirius disappeared up the staircase with Lily hot on their trail. All Aaliyah could think of to calm herself down was that hopefully they wouldn't make it all the way to the sixth floor for Ancient Runes class in time and that all of Black's free time for the week would be packed full with detentions. Not that it would be much of a change from usual.


	3. Chapter 3

'Professor, you can't possibly expect me to spend that much time alone with that crotch-stain, I'll go mad.' Ali pleaded. McGonagall had just delivered the bad news that the Professors were beginning to get fed up with coming up with so many variations of punishment for notorious sixth year Gryffindor boys, and so they would be handing over as much of their detentions as would be manageable to the prefects. In particular, but not limited to, the prefect responsible for handing out said detentions.

'I'm sure you can come up with something perfectly productive for Mister Black to complete for a few hours under your watchful eye Miss Adams. You _have_ already turned in your Transfiguration essay early, and I dare say you have some spare time on your hands.' McGonagall's stern face peered over her square glasses at Aaliyah who visibly slumped further down into the collar of her robes. Sometimes, and only very rarely, she felt that McGonagall had a soft spot for the boys.

'But Professor!' It was nothing short of a childish moan.

'Set a suitable time with Black and tell him you have it on my authority to do so. I trust you won't misuse such power? Now if you'll excuse me Miss Adams, I have a large pile of papers to grade and I'm sure you want my undivided attention paid to yours in particular?' Darn McGonagall, she was good. Defeated, Ali nodded her head solemnly towards her Head of House and unconsciously dragged her feet out of the classroom.

Being a couple of hours from meal time, classes now over for the day, she contemplated whether or not it was worth the trip upstairs to change before dinner. Deciding last minute not to, in an attempt to avoid her dorm-mates, she turned to visit the library instead. On her way she was stopped by Davey Gudgeon, a Hufflepuff sixth year.

'A-Adams?' Davey asked after tapping Aaliyah on the shoulder to stop her. People stopping her on her way places happened more often than you'd think for someone who spent so much time on her own.

'Yes?' Ali replied, blinking simply back at Davey, brows slightly furrowed. Boy's in particular seemed to stop her from time to time, but usually they couldn't quite get on with whatever it was they wanted to say. Aaliyah never enjoyed it, it gave her the feeling they wanted something from her she wasn't willing to give.

'U-uhm… well. You see the thing is- I was wondering- well… mostly, just…' Davey stuttered, taking turns between staring at the floor and his fidgeting hands.

'Spit it out Gudgeon, I'm not in the best of moods. Do you need a prefect for something?' All Aaliyah could think about was Sirius Stupid Black. Davey was saying something about knowing his name, to which Aaliyah's thoughts turned over to _doesn't everyone know your name? Aren't you the idiot that was stupid enough to get everyone ban from going near the whomping willow the first year it was planted? What an absolute_moron_. Why would anybody go near that tree on purpose?_

'A-Adams?' Aaliyah snapped back out of her head at the mention of her name and all but waved Davey off.

'Listen, not that that isn't all lovely, but I have to go find Captain Fancy-Face and tell him about his detention. So if you don't mind terribly Gudgeon, I'll be going now.' Aaliyah pat him on the shoulder, not overly sure how exactly to deal with people needing- whatever it was that he needed. She left him standing right where he was, wordless, as she marched off to the library. Ali had lied a little, she wasn't that intent on locating Sirius until she found it completely necessary. First she'd plan out his detention and then no doubt he and his friends would find her, in their usual 'school rules? what school rules?' manner before dinner.

Tracing well-worn steps into the library and nodding politely to Madam Pince behind her desk, the librarian responded with a rare wave back. Ali found her usual table towards the far end of the library's well maintained walls of books and threw her bag down grabbing a seat. She spent more time in the library than she did her own dormitory, and so she was rather friendly with the usually grumpy librarian. They both agreed on the topic of books being of upmost importance. Aaliyah would have gone stark raving mad if she hadn't had them to read. Besides school work, there wasn't much else for her to fill her time with.

'Mind if I join you?' Aaliyah looked up at the timid smile of Remus Lupin. He looked a tad worn down, but this was to be expected with Remus. He was always getting sick, most people paid little attention to it. But he was a prefect and over the three months that Aaliyah had been appointed one, she had noticed he had gone to the hospital wing twice, and now was looking about ready for a third visit.

'Not at all,' Aaliyah offered, 'NEWTS got you worried?' She enquired, wondering why he was visiting this section at all. Remus, unlike his friends, did value learning. But Aaliyah had never seen too much of him studying alone. He usually had his entourage with him and the four of them made entirely too much noise which Madam Pince was onto in no time at all.

'Thought it best to get a few papers out of the way before the, um, _Christmas cheer_ took hold and I ended up forgetting about them.' As Remus sat down Aaliyah went about her own accord and dug out a couple of text books for her potions essay. It wasn't due for another fortnight at least, but she was too organized for her own good. For a while the two didn't say terribly much to each other, the desk was large enough to fit six students comfortably and so the proximity didn't demand small talk. It wasn't until Ali's curiosity got the better of her.

'Are you ill, Lupin? You look a little paler than you usually do.' At her question Remus's eyes abandoned his Charms text and after glancing up at Ali, looked down to his own hands. He almost seemed to be contemplating what to say, before Ali continued. 'I only ask because if it was anything menial, I could probably give you a hand with it. Madam Pomfrey fusses far too much if you ask me. You've missed at least three nights of patrol this year haven't you? Seems a little ridiculous.'

Remus laughed a little at this, 'I suppose she does fuss doesn't she?' He looked as if he was recalling a perfectly funny memory at Aaliyah's words, which she found concerning. _What's funny about being sick?_

'My mum's a healer. She's taught me loads of stuff. A lot of brews, and simple charms. If you wanted to keep your hospital visits to a minimum, I'm fairly certain I could help.' This could have been seen as a very polite and kind act, which it was, but mostly Aaliyah was just thinking about the extra rounds she had to complete on the days that Remus was out of action. Not that she'd missed out on anything in particular, it probably gave her something to do. Maybe she was being a little too nosy, she thought.

'Is she really? That's a very respectable career. Do you know, I'm not sure we've ever really talked before this? I don't see you around much at meals or in the common room. Do you spend a lot of your time here?' Remus had always been a perfectly nice boy. Sure, he shared his fair amount of detentions with his friends, but of the troublesome four, Remus was probably the best behaved. This didn't mean he was a perfect student by any means, but when surrounded by James Potter and Sirius Black, practically anyone else seemed rather saint-like. Aaliyah expected that was how he earned his title as prefect. As one boy and girl from each house and year had to be chosen, of the four Gryffindor boys, Remus was certainly the lesser of four evils.

Aaliyah wasn't quite sure how she managed to end up experiencing something as menial as small talk, but she was surprised to find she was actually rather enjoying it with Remus. There was something different about the way he spoke to her in comparison to the boys of her own year level, among the various others. She couldn't completely understand what it was, but he seemed less threatening in a way.

'Mostly. I like the quiet.' It was the best answer she could come up with to the keep the mood light. _No one really likes me all that much_ seemed to be an overly dramatic thing to say. Ali wasn't usually one for theatrics.

'Really? I prefer it in the common room. I like the loud. It distracts me from my own thoughts, and makes it easier to focus on the subject matter. But I suppose, that's a little balmy when you say it out loud. You're a lot more normal.' Remus laughed despite himself and Aaliyah awarded him a smile that reached all the way up to her eyes. 'There you go, you have a pretty smile Adams. You should do it more often.'

Aaliyah felt her cheeks warm at that comment, but Remus noticed her apparent withdrawal and quickly changed the topic. 'Is that the essay on Moonstone? Did you need any help? I did the same one last year.' Aaliyah was thankful for Remus' obvious talent for reading people. He was clearly profoundly better at it than she.

'Actually... I've already got it pretty much mapped out. I've read three books on its properties and most of its just kind of sitting there, ready to be written.' Aaliyah hoped that Remus wasn't aware of just how up to date with her homework she was, 'I like learning.' She admitted abashed.

'Well then. Could we possibly see more of each other? How good are you at Charms?' They both sort of chuckled at that, but being who she was, Aaliyah definitely took Remus seriously.

After finding out that the homework Professor Flitwick had set the sixth years was a detail parchment on the Aguamenti Charm, along with practicing it, she got overly literal in her help. When they finally realized the time, they were both producing murky water from the ends of their wands, as quietly as possible.

'Did you want to join me for dinner?' Remus asked politely as they were packing up their things. Aaliyah contemplated it for a moment. She usually ate alone, and quite quickly. But just as she considered agreeing, a thought struck her.

'Unfortunately, I do believe your usual spot by the corner is frequented by one person that would make me lose my appetite entirely.' She bit out the word entirely a lot harsher than she meant to.

Remus seemed to contemplate this, 'I'm guessing the person you're referring to is Peter?'

'Don't be absurd. Peter might not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but I'd prefer him over the other company you keep. At least he doesn't make a habit of jinxing every Slytherin he comes across. Do you know I have to supervise that stupid weasel's detention tomorrow night? McGonagall's even fed up!' Talking about Sirius Black always got Aaliyah a lot more worked up than she could control. Ever since first year. Sometimes she had to literally tell herself to _breathe_ and calm herself down. When she'd composed herself and turned back to Remus, who was pulling his sling bag over his head, he was smiling bemusedly.

'I heard he got caught jinxing that water fountain, I had no idea it was by you. I thought it would have been Lily. I keep forgetting you're a prefect now.' He picked up Ali's bag so she could stuff her last book back inside it and they made their way around the high book-encrusted walls, dodging a few that were levitating themselves back into their alphabetically and genre correct shelves. Ali waved to Madam Pince who raised a brow to see her exiting with someone other than herself.

'What do you think would be a fair detention for using magic outside of class on a student?' Ali asked, remembering she did have to come up with something suitable herself.

Remus pondered this as they made their way towards the staircase. 'How about tending to the grass of the quidditch pitch?'

'It's November Lupin, its freezing! You forget I'm going to be there with the stupid pustule.' The thought of spending two or so hours in the company of Sirius Black _and_ the steadily increasing cold weather was all too much.

Remus then produced a kind of airy smile as he recalled something. 'Well, Marlene did blow up a chair in Transfiguration today-'

'Oh brilliant! I can make him clean it up without magic.' The cogs were turning in her head immediately. Depending on how badly their sixth year peer Marlene McKinnon had gone wrong on her spell, it could mean a lot of tedious manual labour. Just _perfect_.

'For someone so off the radar, you have a pretty wicked steak don't you Adams?' Remus looked almost worried. 'Don't you dare tell him that I helped you devise this plan! I won't hear the end of it if you do.' With that Aaliyah agreed to keep their secret, and gave a polite wave goodbye. When they stepped out onto the third floor landing she climbed the stairs to the Gryffindor tower while Remus went straight down to dinner to join his aforementioned friends.

Dinner would have been in full swing downstairs, and Aaliyah was one to prefer coming in late and avoiding the loudest parts. Or going down incredibly early and being the first to breakfast, that sort of thing. After four full years of it and steadily increasing into her fifth, she'd become rather ingenious at avoiding people. Most of all the girls she shared a dorm with. There were four others in her room, and they were all quick friends. She rarely ever spoke to any of them as they were the worst kind of girls in her opinion. Well, Anna Cox was anyway. The others seemed mostly to just follow her lead. They gossiped a lot and rarely paid attention in class, preferring to talk about boys instead.

What good is talking about boys going to do you, Aaliyah thought? One was much better off using their time at school to _learn_. As she entered her dorm she threw her things down on her bed. The first bed to the left of the door belonged to Aaliyah, which made getting in and out unnoticed easier. The one beside her belonged to Emily Claire, she was the most tolerable of the four thankfully. Mostly due to how exceptionally stupid she was. Gullible was an understatement when it came to Emily. She was also incredibly tall for their age. The middle bed, situated at the back of the circular room belonged to Anna. She was like the female version of Sirius Black in Aaliyah's opinion, only worse. The things Anna did didn't make nearly as many people laugh. She mostly enjoyed gossiping about other students and spreading rumors. Once or twice she'd aided to a few nasty ones about Ali herself, but when Aaliyah had barely reacted to them, Anna quickly got the idea that she wasn't the most fun of torture subjects. The last two beds belong to Bianca Roberts and Maria Anthony. Neither one was rarely seen without the other. Bianca was like a clone of Anna, as they both shared similarly pretty features. Maria was a short girl with Greek lineage that had an unhealthy obsession with divinations and all things alike.

Aaliyah's dorm mates were among the groups of girls around the school that would stare at Sirius Black when he wasn't looking. And Aaliyah seriously questioned those girls' sanity. All of them. Closing the curtains around her bed after she fell in, she whipped out her wand and used a _Locomotor_ charm to sort the books in her bag out, rearranging them to sit on her trunk. Now she would wait to hear her dorm-mates coming up the stairs when she would slip by them and down to the hall to grab a few scraps for dinner. She changed into comfortable clothes while she waited. The easiest thing to locate being a green and gold embroidered button-up, short-sleeve dress that fell midway down her thigh. Simply pulling it on and buttoning it up was far easier than pulling on a pair of her jeans and finding a shirt to match. She enjoyed dresses more anyway.

By close to eight o'clock she heard footsteps coming towards their dormitory and knew it was time for her to vacate. As she snapped up her wand and placed the book she was reading face down on her bed, she slipped out the doorway and was almost in the clear.

'Aaliyah!' Anna's voice sounded positively nice. Ali's name, mispronounced of course, floating out of it as if it were a normal occurrence just as Aaliyah had passed by them. This was far from normal, and her attempts at not being noticed were only thwarted by the fact that for once, Anna had been looking for her. 'I've been looking for you.'

'Can't have been looking very hard then, could you Cocky?' Aaliyah's brows were creased and she wasn't exactly sure how to process this attention. She felt her stomach complain. She hadn't eaten since lunch and she was close to famished by this point. No one is particularly loquacious when they're hungry, least of all the socially inept.

Anna decided to ignore the last comment for the greater good of her situation. 'I heard you gave Sirius Black a detention.'

'Did ya?' Ali's eyes were barely staying open, this was just the type of thing they would ask. Anything to gossip about. Anna was a pretty girl, surely. She had long blonde hair, straight as it came. Her brown eyes were large and her face was usually quite accentuated with makeup. She wasn't particularly thin, and had a nice bone structure about her. Bianca, who was standing to her left, was practically identical in looks, besides maybe being a couple of centimetres shorter and her hair falling only to her shoulders. She probably had a little less in the way of curves.

'Anna's planning to be meeting up with Sirius tomorrow night,' Maria interjected quite matter-of-factly. She was much shorter than the rest of the girls. She had hair about the same length as her 'bestest-friend-for-life' Bianca, although hers was wildly curly and a very dark brown. She wore glasses and her slightly magnified iris behind them almost blended in with her pupil. Her skin was more bronzed than the other three, it came a much closer shade to Aaliyah's own. Emily, the one of the four that Aaliyah tolerated the most, was standing towards the back of the group on the staircase, still able to see quite clearly, clearing close to six foot even at fifteen years of age. She too had dark brown hair, very straight, with a blunt fringe cut to sit perfectly over her eyes which were a lovely shade of blue. She was by far, in Aaliyah's opinion, the prettiest of the lot. If only she concentrated a little harder on, well, anything.

'Yeah, so if you could maybe _not_ give him detention then, that would be great.' Anna smiled in what could only be described as the laziest of smiles and kind of fluttered her eyelashes in some attempt to be endearing. Aaliyah's right eyebrow rose up towards her hairline.

'Well, thanks for this little chat ladies. I've definitely found it most informative. I _will_ make sure that Black attends detention tomorrow night now, see you.' And with that, she was off. As she jumped happily down the stairs, she smiled at the calls behind her of certainly foul names and other such phrases. When she was younger she used to wonder why her dorm mates never tried to befriend her. But as she got older she realized how thankful she was that they didn't. They were the most annoying girls she knew. She went from wondering if she should attempt to be their friends, to not really caring. And that steadily progressed into all-out detesting them somewhere around the end of their second year when the girls started to obsess over boys. She enjoyed annoying Anna almost as much as she liked yelling at Sirius Black.


	4. Chapter 4

As James spoke to Remus in a hushed voice behind them, probably about something Evans related, Sirius and Peter ran along ahead of them behind two seventh year Ravenclaw girls. They'd just finished dinner and Sirius didn't care to listen into yet another session of 'why won't Evans love me?' Sirius tapped Peter on the shoulder and motioned to the girls ahead of them before grabbing some of his close to shoulder length hair with both hands, twirling it through his fingers and moving his lips in the same fashion as the girl to their front-left. Peter started snickering at Sirius's overdone re-enactment of the girls as he thrust his chest forward and waved his hips from side to side as he walked slowly in their stead.

'Check this out.' Peter whispered to Sirius and pulled his wand out of his robe pocket. Sirius's eyes lit up. '_Deprimo_.' Peter muttered flicking his wand toward the girls and a huge gust of air sent their robes flying over their heads. They began screaming and trying to correct their skirts but it was far too late. Everyone in the vicinity had caught a very long glimpse at their undergarments. Sirius was positively roaring with laughter and Peter was beside him wearing a triumphant smile, trying his best not to keel over beside his friend.

Behind them James had abandon his chat and raced forward towards the boys, grabbing at Sirius and laughing at the same magnitude. His laugh didn't meet quite the bark-like tendencies of his best friend.

'You boys are shameless!' The two girls screamed at the foursome as Remus joined them, a hand over his mouth, trying to disguise his muffled fits.

'Five points from Gryffindor!' Came an outsider's voice as she ran over to the commotion. Sirius tried his best to compose himself as he grabbed onto James robes and pulled himself up from his doubled over position, his arm instantly hugging around James' neck in a pose the boys found to be most comfortable. Sirius and James watched as the fifth year prefect helped the girls with their robes then turned towards them, her face looking almost red with anger.

'Of course it's you!' Adam's shouted. Sirius grinned, not upset in the slightest to take the fall for Peter. The laughter he just caused was more than enough payment to do so. This particular prefect seemed to have it in for Sirius anyway. She'd despised him since before he could remember. Sirius watched her as she marched over to them menacingly. It was rather funny, because she was a fair amount smaller than all of them. Her curly dark blonde (or was it light brown? He could never really decide) hair was all pulled back into a long messy plait and her bright green eyes flashing with fury.

'I don't know what you mean Adams? I was just standing here, the picture of innocence when that terrible gust of November chill assaulted those poor girls. You better go after old Mr. North and give him a piece of your mind. He simply can't get away with this!' He could feel James beside him laughing silently.

'Shut up Black! You'd think you idiots would try a little harder when you have a prefect in your midst. You do realize we can only take points from our own houses? We want to win at least _one_ house cup over Slytherin while you morons are still here.' Sirius probably should have resented her for the amount of trouble she caused him, but it was exactly the opposite. He admired how much spirit she had. And he really couldn't argue with the point she made. They hadn't won a house cup in as long a time as the boys had been there.

'Sorry Adams, I did mean to put a stop to it.' Remus spoke from beside them. Adam's face seemed to soften slightly when she turned to Remus, almost as if he'd defused a bomb.

'It's okay Lupin, I know it wasn't you.'

_What's all this?_ Sirius thought looking between Adams and Remus as if he'd missed the punch line of a joke. He saw Peter mouth _sorry_ from beside Remus and waved a hand of nonchalance in return. It wasn't that first time he'd taken the fall for Peter's action, nor did he think it would be the last. The Ravenclaw girls had gone by now and James hugged Sirius' head closer to him.

'What do you think is going on here?' James asked as Adams and Remus spoke between themselves for a moment and Peter came around them to join the other two. 'Do you think Moony likes her?'

'Nah,' Sirius snorted. 'Adams would take the fun out of everything, probably even snogging. No point there.' He said this loud enough for the pair to hear and both Remus and Adams turned to them, Remus not looking nearly as embarrassed as Adams did.

'I would not!' She defended. 'You're probably rubbish at it yourself Black. You think the sun shines out of your arse, so I'm willing to bet you don't know how to please anyone but yourself.' It was so damn easy to get a rise out of her. Sirius found it almost as fun as playing pranks on McGonagall.

'Not true. I'm a fantastic kisser, aren't I prongs?' Sirius cocked his head towards James beside him.

'Oh yeah! Brilliant to say the least. Makes me weak at the knees. And he taste sweet, like sugar quills.' James sighed dreamily and grabbed Sirius's hand, turning to come face to face. He puckered his lips into kissing formation while Sirius did the same. They came as close as to almost connecting when Peter burst out into loud exultant laughter and James and Sirius opened their eyes, Sirius winking over to Adams.

'Never mind your bloody snogging rituals Black I have a message to deliver to you anyway.' Adams sighed rolling her eyes. 'You'll be serving detention with me tomorrow night.' She smiled at this. Sirius didn't know how to take that? Was she happy about him serving detention, or was she happy about him serving detention with _her_? Considering their past, he leaned towards the former. For a moment he admired her skin absentmindedly as the short green dress she was in showed off a fair amount of it compared to their usual conservative school uniform. She always had a lovely tan after the holidays. Her skin was slightly darker naturally to begin with but it was almost always darker after the holidays and stayed that way for months. He started to wonder where it was she must have gone with her family, as no one living in England had skin that sun-kissed. Then he realized he'd just been admiring a girl's _skin_ for longer than thirty seconds and visibly shook his head.

'Are you even listening?!' Adams sounded like she was about ready to smack him.

'No, sorry, what were you saying?' Sirius presented her with his most award-winning smile.

'Transfiguration class room! Tomorrow night, six sharp.' She didn't seem swayed in the least by his smile and it was something that annoyed Sirius from time to time. He usually got what he wanted from students and faculty members alike of the opposite sex. He assumed they found him 'handsome'. It wasn't something he cared for, besides when it benefitted him. Usually getting him out of detentions and such. Sirius shrugged towards James, Peter and Remus.

'As you wish Adams. I'm all yours.' He winked again and Remus grabbed the front of his robes and dragged him away from the string of curse-words coming out of Adams mouth.

'She's going to strangle you one of these days mate if you're not careful.' Remus warned, correcting his friend's robes after detaching from them and leading them towards the stairs.

'Maybe I might let her.' Sirius joked, waving his eyebrows suggestively and making James and Peter laugh. They all made their way up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower joking and invading each other's personal space like it was nobody's business. Once Remus offered the Fat Lady the password and she swung open they clambered in through the portrait hole and made their way over to the lounges in front of the fire.

'Move it.' James announced to the two second years that had managed to scam the best seats available. They quickly vacated the area, almost falling over in their haste. Getting in the boys' way wasn't really a great idea for anyone. It used to only be those in the grades below them that coped it, but the foursome had made such a name for themselves as troublemakers these days that even the seventh years seemed to part way for them in a crowd.

Sirius collapsed happily onto the longest couch. James grabbed his legs and took a seat underneath them, hugging them into his body, getting comfortable in a cross-legged position. Remus, who completely dismissed the rude interaction with the underclassmen, settled himself down peacefully in the armchair to their left and Peter lay belly down on the rug in front of the crackling fire.

'So Moony, getting excited for the upcoming run this weekend?' Pete asked while using his fingers to brush his thin hair forward and straighten out any knots. Sirius watched as James' attention turned from the conversation at hand to the two second years they had banished. They had tried to make their escape up the stairs to their dorms but were stopped by none other than Lily Evans.

'Oh yeah, practically bursting Wormtail. Just cannot wait until I become a raging lunatic with no control over my actions.' Sirius didn't take too much notice of Remus's unhappy reply. He usually got a little depressive and moody towards the full moon. He couldn't help it. It completely altered his temperament and the boys all _loved_ referring to this change as his 'time of the month'. Funnily enough the origins of the joke were rather lost on Sirius until his third year at school when he had learnt exactly why it had been so funny to the other boys. Sirius didn't have sisters and his parents weren't really the sort to sit him down and teach him of the female anatomy. While Peter and Remus discussed a few things among themselves Sirius felt James tense up, hugging Sirius' legs harder into his body unknowingly as Lily came over to them looking less than pleased.

'James Potter you did not just scare two twelve year olds into giving up their seats for you.' It almost sounded like she was hoping he hadn't. James was kind of frozen, eyes wide. He took on a lot of traits of his animagus form after they turned, as did both Sirius himself and Peter.

'Evans they were going up to bed anyway. Isn't it their bed time now? I was just looking out for them. Pre-teens need so much sleep you see. Honestly I thought you might be coming over to thank me for being such a big brother type and looking out for the little squirts.' Sirius was trying not to laugh and both Peter and Remus had stopped their conversation and turned their attention to the redhead. James had his 'perfectly mature' voice on which Sirius enjoyed teasing him about.

Sirius craned his head around James' body to get Remus in view and mouthed _two sickles she smacks him?_

Remus looked quickly at Lily and back to Sirius. _Nope. Not this time._ He seemed pretty sure of himself and so Sirius turned back to Lily and James.

'Well… that is what they said.' She contemplated it, 'I thought they might just be covering for you. For the life of me I can't understand why all these kids look up to you Potter. But whatever.' She shrugged it off and turned around. Sirius's jaw dropped open as James flung his legs off him and practically vaulted the couch to chase after Lily.

'Bloody hell Moony, have you been paying attention in Divinations or something?' Sirius asked rummaging around in his pocket and flipping two silver sickles over to where Remus sat, triumphant. Peter crawled on all fours lazily to steal James' seat and once he seemed comfortable Sirius smacked his legs down into Peter's lap, hard as he could.

Lily had settled back into her seat at the table she was occupying with Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald, two of her four dorm-mates, and best friends. She picked up her pen to get back to her homework just as James reached their table.

'Evans, you-' James stopped mid-sentence and quirked an eye brow at Lily's hands. 'What's that?' He asked, making a face at the strange looking contraption in her hands.

'It is a _pen_ Potter.' Lily rolled her eyes and began writing once again about the correct ways to use the Aguamenti Charm.

'What's a _pen?_And why doesn't it have any feathers? How is it writing? You don't even have a pot of ink out.' James demanded. He was perfectly perplexed. He crouched down to desk level and stared inquisitively at Lily's hand as it scrawled quickly over the parchment leaving a perfect amount of ink in its trail.

'It's how muggles write Potter. I don't need ink. The ink is inside the pen.' She almost sounded as if she was talking to a small child. Marlene and Mary were smiling slightly, but paying James just about as much attention as Lily was. James, getting fed up with being ignored, snatched the pen out of Lily's hand and brought it up to his glasses.

'Fascinating.' He got out before Lily snatched it back and smacked him upside the back of his head. On the other side of the room they heard Remus groan loudly and the clinking of small change as Sirius laughed. 'Why haven't I ever seen you using these _pens_ before Evans? I consider myself rather versed in your school supplies, and you certainly had quills last term. Sugar quills too if I recall correctly.' He watched Lily as she retook her seat and his hand made its way up to his head, not to rub away the pain from where he had just been smacked, but instead to mess up his hair. He did this without even realizing anymore.

'I got sick of quills. They always make my homework blotchy. Now will you go away? I've had just about enough of you for one day.' James huffed, deciding not to test her, and turning around dejected he made his way back over to the boys. When he'd crossed the common room to where they were sitting casually, he glared at Peter who had snaked his spot.

'Snooze you lose Prongs.' Peter shrugged. He used to be a lot more accommodating towards the other three, glad to be a part of their friend group. But the boys had been such close friends for so long now they were all perfectly comfortable with one another. James just slumped over the back of the couch resting his forehead on Sirius's stomach and mumbled something into the headrests stuffing.

'Poor old Prongs, why can't she see?' Sirius started.

'Silly old Evans, please look at me!' Peter continued sounding rather like a toddle mid tantrum.

'Will Prongs and Evans, ever truly be?' Remus clutched his chest mockingly with his right hand, his left being occupied by a honeydukes best chocolate bar.

'Evans, Evans, Prongs yearns for ye!' All three boys shouted in unison and James groaned into the couch. His friend adored embarrassing him in front of Lily. He barely noticed when Sirius's hands ruffled up his hair and rested themselves on his head while Sirius, Remus and Peter laughed at their best friend's expense.

On the other side of the room Lily felt the corner of her mouth twitch but she killed the smile when she noticed Mary and Marlene grinning at her knowingly.

'Lily. Really?' Marlene shook her head. 'Give the guy a break. He's going to give up if you don't give him something to go on.' There was a constant argument in the sixth year girls' dorm on the subject of James Potter.

'Shut it Marls.' Lily didn't even look up from her parchment. Her tummy had a swirling feeling in it over the song they had just overheard the boys singing. They had heard it before. More than once.

'Oh James, your hair is so black and messy, let me fix that for you.' Marlene said in a light voice pulling her hands up to Mary's head and thrusting her face down into her chest.

'Oh my Lily. You're devilishly good at hair care. I think I might need you to do it every morning as I apparently can't seem to get it right.' Mary rubbed her head into Marlene's chest and Lily abandon her homework, chucking a bit of scrunched up parchment at them. The girls just laughed at their stubborn best friend. Everyone knew that James liked Lily. He wasn't exactly secretive about the matter. But only a select few knew that Lily had very much liked James back for about as long, perhaps even longer. The selection consisting of only the three girls at present.

'You're a stubborn twonk. Just go out with him.' Mary chucked the parchment back, making sure her voice was a whisper.

'No. Potter is an arrogant little pest, I might have held a fancy for him before but his head just swelled up far too much and I refuse.' Lily returned to her parchment, gripping her pen a little tighter.

'The only reason you turned your nose up at him the first time he asked you out is because of that greasy snot nose Snivellus. He put words in your head Lil. Constantly putting Potter down and making sure you were always with him.' Marlene, along with Mary, never liked the idea of their friend hanging out with Snape. They saw his worst side when Lily wasn't around, as Snape always seemed to be on his best behaviour when Lily was in view. They couldn't help the small inward celebration they shared last term when the slime ball had slipped up and treated Lily the same way he treated all the other muggle-borns.

'I'm glad you don't talk to him much anymore.' Mary admitted. 'And that you seem to be doing anything in your power to show him you're muggle-born and proud.' Mary nodded to the pen with a smile. Lily just grinned down at her parchment seemingly ignoring her friends. Marlene and Mary huffed together knowing the argument was useless. Lily had just fallen into a routine with James that led to her constantly turning his advances down, but she would wear down eventually. They knew that much. Lily glanced over at the boys watching as James slipped over the back of the couch, landing on both Sirius and Peter and the two boys' contested loudly. James just shimmied himself a spot between them and it wasn't long before all four were laughing and chatting about something happily. She couldn't help but smile when she saw Sirius swipe James' glasses and put them on making a face about exactly how blind James was.

Lily Evans could pretend to hate James Potter all she wanted. But it was almost impossible to do so when the prat was that bloody cute, she thought, as he reached out completely missing Sirius in an attempt to regain his sight.


	5. Chapter 5

Aaliyah was up, bright and early the next day. She had a spring in her step as she jumped down the stairs on the way to the great hall for breakfast. She had her uniform on, perfectly adjusted, prefect badge secured. She'd managed to sneak out before any of her dorm mates had even woken up and had the most relaxing bath in the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor. The sun was out, only slightly covered by clouds and she was just _happy_. When she returned to her dorm last night she could still hear Anna and her friends muttering about her. Clearly very upset about Anna missing her date or whatever with Sirius. She didn't know why it was, but annoying her dorm mates was practically her favourite thing.

'Good morning Adams.' Slughorn, her potions master, smiled at her as she entered the Great Hall beside him.

'Morning Professor!' She replied, looking out at the four long tables, barely a student in sight.

'You're very chipper this morning Adams. What's got you in such a good mood?' Slughorn asked as they walked together towards the back of the hall where the teachers table was situated and where Ali usually took a spot at the Gryffindor table, closest to theirs.

'Not really sure professor. But I feel like today is going to be a good day.' She took her usual seat but didn't turn her body around just yet, hearing her professor out.

'Perfect way to start the morning Adams. Looking forward to your paper on moonstones. I always enjoy a good intelligent read! How's your father going? Heard about his promotion. Very nice Adams, _very_ nice.' Slughorn smiled down at Ali with his kind aging face. He was known for being very bias with his students, but Aaliyah was the top of her grade in just about everything, and so one of Slughorn's favourites. Not to mention her father was climbing his way up the ministry, over-seeing most of the liaisons between the British ministry and Australia now which was also something Slughorn prided his students for. Not that anyone had any say over what their parents did, but Aaliyah never thought much into it.

'Yep, he's been having meetings with the Minister and all. He sent me a letter the other day filling me in on everything. He and Mum are still really close to Dumbledore of course.' Aaliyah felt her smile widen. She adored her parents and was always proud to talk about them. As if hearing his own name, Aaliyah's headmaster appeared next to them, a calm smile on his weathered face.

'Good morning Horace. Good morning Aaliyah. How are you both?' Dumbledore asked, hands clasped together behind his back. He always wore the most beautiful robes Aaliyah thought. Magnificent blues, deep reds, shimmering teal greens. Today he had chosen a lovely lilac colour with a silver trim. His long silver beard was tucked into his belt and he had on his high-heeled buckled boots which mysteriously never made a sound on the stone floor. Ali had always secretly wondered what he did to achieve that, for it certainly wasn't normal.

'Morning Albus.' Slughorn nodded happily.

'I was just telling Professor Slughorn about Dad's promotion, Dumbledore.' Aaliyah continued. 'How he's practically running all of the ministry stuff over in Australia now. And meeting up with the Minister of magic regularly.'

'Oh yes,' Dumbledore nodded, 'Christian and Kani are both becoming very well-known. I do believe your mother is now head of the fourth floor at St. Mungo's? Got her to start making the compute late last year Horace, very talented family. Even your little brother seems to be rather switched on for his age.' Slughorn looked like he was going to overload on the information. He clapped Aaliyah on the shoulder.

'I can't wait for your brother to start here Adams, I expect he'll be just as eager to learn as his big sister. What a set that will be, even if you're not in Slytherin.' Slughorn finished with a yearning gleam in his eye.

'Tucker's great.' Aaliyah felt her smile falter a little. She missed her baby brother the most when she was away at school. Every time she went back home for the holidays he'd grown half a foot. Much to her dismay back when she was eleven and Kanika had gone into labour, Christian had announce that she had a baby brother when she entered the hospital wing with Dumbledore. But her annoyance quickly faded when she came into the room to meet him and saw the tiny baby smiling back at her. Skin the same colour as Kanika's, and a large amount of curly dark brown hair despite being fresh out of the womb. 'I miss him, he's a character that's for sure.'

'Come now Horace, let Aaliyah get back to breakfast. I do believe she likes to finish it early in an attempt to evade the noise.' Dumbledore winked knowingly at Aaliyah, directing Slughorn up to the faculty table leaving Ali in silence. There were probably ten or twelve other students scattered around, the only Gryffindor's being her cousin Nay and his best friend Dirk Cresswell. Dirk was the other Gryffindor prefect of their year and he waved over at Ali. She nodded politely in return before turning her attention towards breakfast.

'Morning.' It was all Ali heard before she felt someone sit down beside her. She turned to be met with Remus Lupin's form, looking even worse than he had the day before.

'Oh. Morning.' She was a little affronted by the company, but with a quick glance around realising he was alone, she visibly relaxed. Two encounters within two days with the same person was a personal first for her, and she watched as Remus sleepily grabbed a plate and began collecting bits of food for breakfast from the selection at hand.

'Wassnt urgh.' Remus supplied and Aaliyah just raised a brow and spooned some scrambled eggs into her mouth.

'Not a morning person, Lupin?' Aaliyah presumed. He just nodded and then lay his head down on the table beside his plate and closed his eyes. Aaliyah smiled for a moment before continuing on with her food. It took Remus a full fifteen minutes to raise his head back up and they ate in complete silence. Aaliyah surveyed his face a little out of the corner of her eye. His hair wasn't brushed and he looked even paler today. She wasn't sure why, but the poor boy got every cold that went around. Had her mother met him, she was positive Kanika would faint.

By the time they had finished eating Remus had woken up enough to explain why he was up and about. He had offered to help Professor Sprout with some early morning pruning of the venomous tentacula's after he, Sirius and Peter were caught in one of the greenhouses afterhours. Aaliyah had to fight the urge to ask why he had deliberately disobeyed the rules, and only just managed to.

'You know Lupin, they can actually revoke your prefect badge.' Aaliyah said it rather flippantly, as she expected the reply would be something along the lines of _nah_.

'I highly doubt they'd want to make any of the others prefect. I'm not overly concerned.' He supplied, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Aaliyah had to smile at that. Remus was quite cute in the mornings she decided. He was trying to goad his hair into sitting to one side as they walked their way back towards the Gryffindor tower.

'Dirk Cresswell looks like he has a bit of a crush on you.' Remus said as they reached the portrait and he gave up on his hair.

'He what?' Aaliyah sounded utterly concerned as she gave the Fat Lady the password and they made their way through the hole and into the common room. There were barely any students around, most either getting up and tending to their early morning rituals or making their way out the portrait hole and down to breakfast.

'He was staring over at us a lot. Probably wondering why you were sitting with me.' Lupin grinned at that.

'You think so?' Ali contemplated the thought for a moment and wasn't really sure that someone waving at you meant they liked you. 'I think maybe you're reading into it. He was probably wondering more along the lines of why anyone was sitting with me at all. If you haven't noticed I'm kind of a lone wolf.' Remus laughed loudly at that, which took her off guard. He recovered quite quickly though at her bemused look.

'Do a lot of guys approach you?' Remus asked, taking a seat in the armchair by the window and motioning to the one beside him. Aaliyah indulged him and sat down also, noticing Snowball sprawled out lazily on the windows sill.

'What makes you think that?' She mulled on the thought slightly, deciding that Remus was being very peculiar this morning. Although she didn't mind as his presence seemed to provide her with something to do other than reading.

'Oh, nothing really.' He dropped the subject completely as he rubbed his face into the side of the armchair, closing his eyes. Snowball had noticed he was no longer alone, sitting up completely thrown with his fluffy white hair all over the place and his eyes dazed with sleep. Aaliyah reached out and moved him from the sill to securely on her lap. His grumpy, flat face relaxed as he noticed who she was and he shut his blue eyes and began to purr. As she pat Snowball, Remus fell asleep in the chair and Aaliyah quietly watched the clouds out of the windows clear panes.

She very much liked Remus and the company he provided. It was exactly like being alone, but his long deep breaths gave her something to focus on. It was curious to her that he seemed to want her company, but she didn't press the matter. Snowball's purring got almost as loud as Remus's breathing when she noticed Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black coming down the dormitory stairs. They both noticed Remus and chose to ignore it, hurrying out the portrait hole. She stood up and placed Snowball in her seat after she heard her dorm mates come down the stairs and hurry out the portrait hole after Sirius and Peter.

It didn't take her long to take the stairs two at a time and reach her dorm. She grabbed her copy of _Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms_ for her Ancient Runes class first up and packed it along with her ink and quills into her bag and made her way back down the stairs. When she noticed Remus was still fast asleep she nudged him awake and let him know classes would be starting soon. He thanked her and told her to go on without him before remembering there was something he wanted to ask her.

'Oh, I was meaning to ask you by the way.' He almost looked a little ashamed at this. 'I know you gave Sirius a detention tonight, which is fine and all… but I heard you gave him a double?'

'He deserved it.' Aaliyah defended.

'I don't doubt it. Honestly. But… is there any chance you might let up on the second one? It's just… we have something planned for Saturday night. It's- well… I kind of need his assistance with something.'

Aaliyah considered this. She would have outright refused had anyone else asked her. But Remus was just so- sweet. She almost didn't want to disappoint him. 'I'll think about it, I suppose. If he does a well enough job with the clean up tonight… I _guess_ I could drop the charges.'

'Thanks Adams.' He smiled warmly at her placing an appreciative hand on her shoulder, which was a feat in and of itself with just how peaky he looked. She waved it off and made her way out of the common room and down the one set of stairs to the sixth floor where her ancient runes class was held. She was just thinking about how wonderful the morning had been when a first year slid passed her at an astounding speed. She watched him go, all the way down to the end of the hall, and smacked into the corresponding wall. Two Hufflepuff fifth years that she had class with coming from the opposite direction, having just laughed at the first year, had their legs slide out from under them and they too zoomed off down the opposite side of the corridor. Aaliyah's eyes narrowed as she glared around for the culprits.

'Black! Pettigrew!' She spotted them leaning on a wall not too far off. She saw Sirius quickly stash his wand and shove Peter as they corrected their posture.

'What's the meaning of this?' Aaliyah shouted as a second first year flew right by her feet, screaming for help.

'Peter!' Was all Sirius could say as he quickly pulled his wand out and flicked it at the corridor floor, providing the counter-charm to evaporate the soap suds that had been propelling students along them. Peter merely let his jaw drop as he turned to his now highly amused best friend.

'You little cretin! And I was _actually_ considering letting you off with one detention, well you can forget that!' She announced storming over to the boys.

Sirius groaned, 'But it wasn't _me_. It was Peter.' He nodded whilst crossing his arms and staring down at his friend beside him.

'Sirius!' Peter all but squeaked.

'Yeah. I told him not to. But he just wouldn't listen. Such a rebel this one. I tried my honest to merlin best. I even cleaned up after him so you wouldn't have to, see?' Sirius clasped his hands to the front of his robes in an effort to look spiffy.

'Is that true?' Not that she believed it, but Aaliyah asked anyway turning to Peter. A person of authority had to be in possession of all the facts before prosecuting someone after all.

'N-not at all!' Peter gave up and Sirius sighed.

'Okay. It _was_ me.' He held his hands out in a fashion that meant he was giving himself up. 'Take me away Adams. Do your best. But please, be gentle. To an extent.' There were a few onlookers that all _ooo'd_ now which made Aaliyah uncomfortable. She smacked Sirius's hands down and huffed.

'Shut it Black. Get to class! I'll be seeing you in detention tonight anyway.' She bit out and lifted a rogue first year to their feet from where they seemed to be having trouble getting back up. She just sighed as the boys laughed to themselves and made their way down the staircase and hopefully off to class. And the morning had been going so well.

* * *

><p>Later on that afternoon in their double of History of Magic, James had unintentionally fallen asleep on his own shoulder. Just the tiniest amount of drool was escaping his open mouth and making its way down his collar bone. Sirius was just barely paying attention, scrawling down the bare essentials on his parchment and glancing around to where Remus sat behind them from time to time. He had been forced to pair up with Lily at a desk as James had demanded to sit near her, and Sirius had taken the spot beside him. Remus and Lily got on well enough, Sirius assumed it was because of who he chose to associate with that he and Lily weren't better friends.<p>

Sirius looked around to where Mary McDonald and Marlene McKinnon were sitting and wondered why they had abandon Lily. Then he realised he didn't actually care and turned his attention back to Professor Binns. Binns was droning on about something Goblin related and Sirius sighed, scribbling a few more notes. It was their last class of the day and he knew that if he didn't take some kind of notes for James that they'd actually have to seek out study material instead and that was just not something he was willing to do for this class.

Sirius heard snickering coming from behind him and just managed to turn around to catch Lily in the act of thrusting a bright pink quill into the air. Remus was laughing silently beside her. Sirius wanted in on the joke. He looked back to James beside him and realised that the quill had lodged itself in his unruly hair. Another one zoomed by, joining the first. Sirius felt a smile tugging on his face. Being completely faithful to his best friend, he decided he should probably put a stop to it… probably. In a minute, anyway. He felt himself shake silently with suppressed laughter as James's head filled with different coloured feathers. When Remus joined in his first one was very successful. Successful enough to delve itself so deep in James' hair that Lily snorted so loud it woke him up. All three of the onlookers tried their best to hold back their laughter as the sleepy form of James Potter glanced around, wiping up drool with the back of his robes.

Sirius leant back in his chair, discarding the note taking for the time being while Binns seemed to be stuck in a loop and pursed his lips into a thin line so as not to smile. James was looking around still trying to figure out who had woken him up when Lily landed another one. There were at least a dozen sticking out of his head now, all managing to stay in perfectly. Sirius noticed that these particular quills were all quite unnaturally bright colours. And then they started to leak. The one Remus had gotten close to the front of his hair dripped a large green blob down his forehead. James' hands went up to his hair and he felt the things lodged in there and whipped around.

'What the hell?' James uttered under his breath trying desperately to yank them out. They weren't budging however and at this Sirius really did start laughing.

'Now if you'll observe Lupin this is what it looks like when a spell is done right. Here's hoping they're in there well enough that he has to cut them out. The colours seem to be doing him a favour at least.' Lily spoke loud enough for both Sirius and James to hear, but low enough not to alert the rambling Professor Binns. Remus snickered again and let another one loose. It landed smack bang on the back of James's head and he and Lily had to crouch over on their desks to keep themselves under control.

'Who do you work for Moony?! I trusted you!' James seethed turning to Sirius with wide apprehensive eyes. Sirius snorted at the sight. James looked a little more like a rainbow pincushion than his best friend at the moment and he couldn't stop himself. 'Padfoot, help me!' James voice almost reached above a whisper and Sirius just motioned for him to present his cranium for inspection. James quickly offered it up but even with Sirius trying to dislodge the quills, it seemed useless. And he also wasn't keen on the idea of getting any of the travelling bright ink on his person. What if it didn't come off? Evans was far craftier than she looked. They'd learnt that the hard way long ago. They both turned around to where Lily sat and she just wore a sly smile.

'Sorry Prongs.' Sirius shook his head and held up a hand to Lily. She high-fived him all too happily. James fussed over his hair for the rest of the class, practically running out the door as it came to an end. Sirius had to clutch onto Remus's robes to steady himself he was laughing so hard.

'Ah Evans, were you not a prefect I reckon you'd fit in nicely with us.' Sirius told her as the three remaining of the group made their way out of class together.

'Well, that will teach him for spending all of Defence staring at my arse.' Lily nodded matter-of-factly. 'You guys do remember that Lupin is a prefect, though? Right?' Her words sounded like an accusation, but her face told a different story as she smiled beside the boys. Mary and Marlene had now joined them.

'Nice one Lily.' Marlene wrapped an arm around her lazily.

'Push off you two, abandoning me when Potter walked in was the lowest of low.' Lily pushed Marlene off her and stuck her nose in the air. Sirius noticed Remus staring sideways at the exchange, paying particular attention to Marlene, and elbowed him. He waggled his eyebrows in a seductive motion to which Remus gave him a rather rude hand gesture.

'Let Potter know it was just a variation of the stickfast hex, would you Black? He needn't worry about cutting any of his precious hair. As for the ink, well good luck with that.' Lily laughed and waved to them as they parted ways. 'And try to stay out of trouble would you?'

'Actually Evans!' Sirius turned to Remus, lowering his face to produce what was the most cunning and sly face Remus had ever seen. Looking through his brows, hair falling forward, and a smile all but screaming a plot of murder. Remus didn't know what was in store for him but in that moment he wanted to melt into the floor. 'Could you and McKinnon do me a _huge_ kindness?'

'Spit it out Black?' Lily was tapping her foot, arms folded. Marlene and Mary were to either side of her looking something like backup singers in a girl band.

'Remus, the poor darling, is feeling somewhat under the weather. I do fret for him. And I am due down in detention fairly soon. Could you possibly walk the poor dear to the common room? Keep an extra close eye on him, his temperatures have been known to spike at any time. I've had to save him from fainting more than once… I just can't _bear_ the thought of him toppling down a stair case,' he gulped, 'maybe even… breaking his _neck_!' Sirius was now wiping actual tears from his welling eyes, his breath catching.

Remus was now the one that looked about ready to dabble in homicide, his nostrils flared and mouth but a thin line. Lily, although she adopted a front before James, was just about as motherly as they came. She wasn't gullible and knew Sirius was putting on a show, but also knew Remus was one to get easily sick. She walked back over to Remus and wrapped one of his arms in hers and led him in the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

'Better get his other side McKinnon! You just never know!' Sirius shouted out in their wake, hearing the girls giggle as they disappeared around the corridor's corner. Sirius quickly lifted his bag up in search of his two-way mirror, finding it easily enough.

'Prongs?' he spoke into the mirror making sure no one else was around. 'Prongs mate, you there?'

'What is it Padfoot? I kind of have a situation on my hands if you've forgotten?' Sirius stifled a laugh as James' head appeared to be just as full of colour and quills as it had been when he left.

'Mate, it's just a variation on the stickfast hex. Don't lay an egg.' He had to raise his hand to his mouth in a manner that he tried to put off as coughing at James's expression. It was the exact face a child made when you took away his toys. 'Never fear my gallant prince. I got Moony back for you already.'

'My hero.' James flung his glasses off and fluttered his lashes into the mirror flamboyantly. The look did wonders with his current hair style.

'I'll see you after dinner anyway, got that detention with Adams.' Sirius seemed completely unperturbed by the thought.

'Miss you _already_.' James sung, tapping his wand to each quill, having them fall from his head. Sirius quickly stashed the mirror and made his way towards the kitchens in the hope of getting a snack before marching into battle.


	6. Chapter 6

Aaliyah cleared her throat loudly causing Sirius to drop the contents in his arms. Her own arms were folded in a tight knot in front of her chest from where she stood. She was now melded to the spot about to ascend the staircase to the ground floor. She'd stayed chatting with Professor Slughorn for quite some time in an attempt to busy herself before she was due to oversee Sirius's detention. She noticed someone aimlessly wandering around the corner and didn't pay too much attention to it, until she realized who it was. It took her about a quarter of a second to do so.

'Mel'n A'ms!' Sirius shouted in surprise after he'd flung around and lots his spoils. The sausage dangling from his mouth was the only item left from the stash he had nicked. He had immediately lowered his head in hyperawareness of being caught, like a dog that had been discovered digging in a bin. Once he recomposed himself, he bit into his sausage and secured the remains in his wand-free hand. 'How do you seem to find me _everywhere_? Have you got some kind of alert system telling you exactly where I am in the castle at all times?'

'And how on _earth_ do you expect me to be doing that Black? Do I have a map of Hogwarts? Does it tell me exactly where you are at all times of the day?' Aaliyah looked at him shaking her head as he made his way over to her. She noted his interest peak at the mention of a map as he considered it. She sighed. 'Firstly if I had such a thing, I would do my very best to avoid you, not find you. It would certainly do wonders for our house points. And secondly you can't actually be contemplating that? I don't know how much you know about Hogwarts but the intricate detail and level of magic you'd need to actually make a map of _this_ school is uncharted. Don't be stupid. Are you just going to leave that there?' She indicated lazily over to the scraps of food he'd deserted on the floor.

'Well I can't bloody eat it now can I thanks to you. Gives the Elves something to do. They enjoy it.' He concluded and Aaliyah felt her teeth grind together as he raised his sausage up to take a second bite.

'_Expulso!_' She spoke the incantation flicking her wand before his face causing the sausage to explode at just the right magnitude to spray him with the remains. Sirius looked _shocked._ Mouth agape, staring, completely at a loss for words. Aaliyah found her lips twisting into a satisfied smirk.

'What is going on with the girls at this school today?' Sirius shook his head to rid himself of stray meat chunks in the most dog-like manner Aaliyah had even seen a human portray. 'You've all gone mental.' She merely shoved him up the stairs after making quick work of the abandoned food. They'd only made it to the ground floor when someone ran head first into them, and if Ali had to be honest, she could have sworn it was on purpose.

'Oh _Aaliyah_! Fancy running into you here.' The mispronunciation of her name made the top of her lip twitch as she and Sirius straightened themselves out only to be met with three of her dorm mates. Anna, Bianca and Maria all seemed to have more make up on than usual. Ali presumed Emily might have gotten lost in the dorm. There were five beds in there to navigate around.

'UH-LEE-YAH.' If she insisted on using it she may as well have gotten it right.

'Yeah, whatever.' Anna dismissed her almost immediately and turned to Sirius who visibly took a step back when she approached. 'How are you today Sirius?' Sirius just turned to Aaliyah as if for an explanation, grey eyes wide. She found it odd, remembering that Anna had told her she was supposed to be meeting up with him tonight. It seemed as if he had no clue who she even was.

'Yeah, great. Thanks.' He replied slipping between the three approaching girls and rejoining Aaliyah on the other side.

'Totally blows about your detention. I _did_ try and negotiate with her.' She fixed a face towards Aaliyah that all but said _this thing_. 'But the little trollop seems to have it out for you still.' Ali was pretty used to this treatment by now. The only thing that shocked her was Sirius's reply.

'Trollop? If anyone resembles a troll, it's you.' The snide smiles that the three girls had adopted vanished instantly. 'I'm sorry, but what was your name again?'

'Sirius. It's me. Anna? We were supposed to be meeting up tonight after dinner, remember?' Bianca and Maria were looking sideways at their queen bee as she failed to maintain her composure.

'Sorry, no. No recollection of that at all mate. But you know, Ernie Bulstrode from Slytherin did get me with a hair-loss curse last month. Could have sworn he snatched up the few stray ones before I got the counter-curse in.' Sirius seemed to contemplate this while Aaliyah let loose a loud laugh to his left.

'You've been snogging Ernie Bulstrode!' she couldn't hold her laughter in, it was resonating around the entrance hall. 'They're brewing a polyjuice potion in sixth year classes, you've been bloody snogging a Slytherin!' As it dawned on Anna exactly what was just exchanged between them she turned and ran up the stairs. Bianca and Maria who both hadn't uttered a word shared a look and slowly took the stairs one step at a time. Aaliyah was clutching her sides and doubled over from laughter. She could feel tears in her eyes.

'This. Is. Excellent!' She wheezed out after she regained feeling in her fingers, she was grasping herself so tight from laughter she'd cut off the circulation. When she was standing again she realized Sirius was watching her with a very casual smile leaning against the stairs banister. In that moment he reminded her of one of the hero's her neighbour Evelyn would show her in the flimsy shiny magazines she read. They didn't move like wizard pictures did, but the stories they told used to keep the two thoroughly entertained over the few days here and there they would spend together when Aaliyah was home from school. She sobered up relatively fast after that though, as the hero's in those stories always made her stomach flutter, and she didn't like thinking of Sirius Black the same way.

'All right, up you go.' She nudged him, indicating to climb the stairs up to the first floor where his detention awaited. He didn't argue and it wasn't long before they were looking down at the mess Marlene had made of what was left of the chair. They both stared at it for a few seconds before Sirius spoke up.

'Bloody McKinnon's.' He shook his head. The scorch marks alone would have taken an hour _with_ magic to completely eradicate, at their level at least. Ali whipped out her wand and turned to where there was a rouge chair and went through all her knowledge on transfiguration spells. She couldn't think of the right spell.

'Need a hand?' Sirius enquired with a smirk seeing Aaliyah's confused demeanor.

'No!' She barked. 'I just can't remember the spell to transfigure a chair into a bucket. It'll come to me.' Sirius just sighed and tapped the chair once. It transformed instantly into a perfect wooden bucket. Not even the slightest echo of a hiccup. 'How did you do that? How did you do that non-verbally?' Ali demanded. Sirius just shrugged.

'I have a knack for transfiguration.' He smiled at this like something was particularly funny. What the bloody hell is funny about that? Sometimes Aaliyah really just could not read people.

'Well, _aguamenti_.' She held her wand out as a slightly murky stream filled the bucket before she stopped it. She turned back to Sirius who seemed less than impressed.

'That's murky.' He screwed up his face and Aaliyah huffed.

'Well sorry your highness. I'm not supposed to be learning the charm for at least another year. Forgive me. You try and do better.' She snapped and Sirius picked up the bucket, emptied its contents over the scorched remains with casual elegance and then repeated her actions. He created a crystal clear stream that filled to the top before he _scourgified_ it to make it soapy.

Not wanting to be outdone, '_Flagration._' Aaliyah flicked her wand at the soapy water and it began to bubble from the heating hex. The two students merely stared at each other for a moment before Sirius laughed. Not that she was the expert on Sirius Black, but she could have sworn that incessant laugh was distinctly less bark-like in their younger years. 'How the hell are you doing so well with all your subjects Black? I never see you in the library and all you ever seem to be doing is getting yourself into trouble.'

'I don't need to study too much.' Aaliyah found his words to be most insulting. 'I pay attention in class.' He added, like it was common sense. Aaliyah felt herself tense up at this. Had she not studied as much as she did she knew she'd have been decidedly average in the grades department. This was actually infuriating. She grabbed the bucket and thrust it at his chest.

'Get to work!' Some of the water splashed out and onto his uniform. 'In silence!' She added before he could get the words out to complain. She sat down cross-legged on top of the chair-less desk and retrieved her _Standard Book of Spells_ text to go over some of her charms revision. She wasn't really keeping track of the time and had to silently chastise herself a handful of times when she realized she was staring at Sirius over her book while he scrubbed at the ash and collected up the debris. The first time she blamed it on the fact that he'd pulled his grey school jumper over his head and abandoned it. The process quite nearly took his white school shirt with it and as much as she hated his stupid face, being very much a female, she really couldn't deny that his appearance was quite easy to admire.

But that excuse only worked once. The three other times she realized she was staring she didn't know what she could argue it off as. Instead she chose to swear about him in her head like it was his fault. She was now pouring over a fourth book on the properties of moonstone that she'd taken out at lunch going over and over in her head about the importance of _not bloody looking at Sirius Black's stupid arse_ as he angrily scrubbed at the scorch marks on the floor.

_You're better than some stupid hormonal tosser, get it together._ These were what most of the sentences comprised of. As she was letting loose a few particularly bad curse words she'd learnt from her father, she didn't realize Sirius was now standing in front of her saying her name.

'Adams!' He shouted once more getting his face as close to her ear as he could, invading serious personal space barriers. Aaliyah nearly jumped out of her skin at the volume causing her to fall backwards and bring the table along with her. A loud string of the curse words she had been trying to keep at bay flew out all in a jumble. When she opened her eyes Sirius was standing over her. He had a humoured smile on his face and his hair was falling forwards as he looked down at her with a dreamy kind of expression. He seemed to find this all thoroughly amusing.

'Dear Adams, you are positively the most graceful prefect in all the school.' He offered her his hand and she hit it away as hard as she could as she pressed herself into a sitting position.

'You are _exactly_ the same as you were the day I met you. Conceited and _rude_.' Sirius rubbed his hand looking a little puzzled as he cocked his head to the side trying to recall what she meant. Aaliyah stood of her own accord and picked the desk up. She was surprised to see just how much work Sirius had actually gotten through while she had been internally arguing with herself.

'You can finish the rest tomorrow night then.' She decided, gaining a loud groan from Sirius.

'Adams. I know you're a little obsessed with me but could you possibly postpone the detention for tomorrow night? I have something really important I have to help Moony with.' It wasn't until he stopped speaking that Sirius realized Aaliyah's fists were curled up into balls and shaking by her sides.

'Obsessed? _Obsessed_? With **you**?' She had to fight every fiber of her being not to actually scream. Sirius Black was quite literally the only thing known to wizarding kind that could rile her up this much with merely a sentence. 'I don't care if you have a bloody funeral to go to! You will be finishing it tomorrow night, you foul little toad-boil. Now **piss off**!' She felt like she could nearly have levitated from the sheer force of the air she snorted from her nostrils as she clutched her hands around her face and squished her own head in anger. Thankfully by the time she recovered Sirius was nowhere to be seen. She muttered angrily to herself as she gathered up her books.

She was still furious when she got to the staircase landing and as she began climbing the stairs it completely escaped her mind to jump the vanishing step. It wasn't until she was ankle deep, bag and its contents scattered all around her, that she realized what had happened. Her lower lip quivered and she felt her eyes burning. The day had started off so well, how did it come to this? Brought to tears by a git and outsmarted by a stair. She tugged at her foot for well over a minute, the tears starting to flow. It was well past nine o'clock and she didn't know how long it would be until someone found her.

What if she was there all night, she thought, wiping away stray tears. She was sure she was about to get her period with how emotional she seemed to be right now.

The whole situation reminded her of the time she had gotten it in her second year and had come out of the bathrooms cursing about her 'time of the month'. To her complete horror none other than Sirius Black had been in earshot and stared at her in absolute _shock_. When she asked him what the hell he was staring at all he managed to say was _'Are… are you a… werewolf?'_ to which he received a textbook to the head and Aaliyah screaming the best profanities she'd known behind him. He truly was a perfectly horrid little boy back then in Aaliyah's opinion. And even if he had a nice arse he was still a horrid little git now.

She'd almost resigned herself to the fact that she may actually be sleeping on the staircase when she perked up instantly hearing voices in the distance.

'It's perfectly alright Sirius, as I have come to understand they can be rather puzzling creature's young girls.' Aaliyah slumped back down. This night could literally get no worse. She furiously wiped at her eyes to get rid of the evidence of her emotional breakdown. Ali might not have worn as much make up as her dorm mates but she did go through the motions of applying mascara and such to her eyes in the mornings. She was cursing her vanity right now knowing that she probably resembled a Chinese Fireball at the current moment.

'They're bloody mental Albus.' Aaliyah narrowed her eyes for two reasons. That comment was clearly directed at her and since when was Sirius Black on a first name basis with Dumbledore? She didn't even address their headmaster so flippantly and she usually shared tea with him on the holidays! 'I reckon James has actually lost it over Evans. If they don't get together soon I reckon I'm going to punch him.'

'Ah, well we can't have that. We'll have to devise some kind of plan to help them along.' Aaliyah had overheard enough now to feel like if she spoke up, she would feel bad for not having done so sooner. That… and she was kind of intrigued. 'I have always felt they seemed quite a smart match.'

'You and the whole school Albus.' Sirius sighed like he was a fifty-year-old man discussing politics with a work colleague. She heard Dumbledore chuckle.

'As much as I enjoy our little chats, you better be getting up to bed Sirius. I myself try and get as much sleep in while I can, never know when you might be up all night. Do try your best not to make a habit out of those visits. I'm quite certain mister Filch wouldn't be nearly as understanding had he been the one to bump into you climbing out of that portrait.' Aaliyah froze now. 'Oh, and perhaps it would be best to take the normal route over the passage you were planning on. You never know who might need an invaluable hand nearby.'

'You're speaking in riddles again.' Came Sirius's reply.

'Goodnight.' Was the last word Ali heard Dumbledore sing and following his orders, Sirius rounded the corner of the staircase not long after. Aaliyah couldn't help the sniffle she made causing Sirius to jump somewhat and raise his wand after non-verbally using the _lumos_ charm. He just started laughing when he realized Dumbledore was just as on point as ever.

'Adams, Adams, Adams. This is deplorable. You're making Gryffindor look bad.' He joked approaching her helpless position on the stairs. His laughter died somewhat when he realized she'd been crying. 'Hey. It's okay, don't fret. I won't tell anyone.' He sounded perfectly sweet as he secured his hands under her arms and lifted her up rather effortlessly. They stood face to face for a short moment, Sirius's wand lighting up the area from its lowered point. He reached his wand free hand up and wiped the last stray tear from Aaliyah's cheek as she sniffed again.

'You alright?' He asked seeming genuinely concerned. Aaliyah felt a rush of blood rise to her cheeks and her face tingled slightly where he had touched her. She blinked vacantly.

'Uh. Yeah.' She wiped her face again looking around at all her belongings then dropping to her knees to retrieve everything. 'Just, uh… hormones.'

'You're telling me.' He laughed, handing Ali her last book and with that, the strange feeling that had erupted in her stomach died a very quick death. She just rolled her eyes and took the book. She uttered a _thanks_ and they walked up to the Gryffindor tower in silence. When they reached the portrait and Sirius gave the Fat Lady the password Ali was thankful that he hadn't pressed the matter of her crying any further and just walked close by her side. It was somehow comforting, even despite her feelings towards him.

'Listen… about tomorrow. I'm sure you'll be done with what's left in an hour, or less… after that you can get going early… to help out Lupin.' She decided looking at the floor was much better than looking him in the eyes. The fire in the common room was still crackling away and there were only two other students sitting together pouring over their parchments.

'Really? Thanks Adams!' Sirius clutched her shoulder in an affectionate way.

'For Lupin!' She added once more, nodded her head, and turned around all but running up the stairs to the girls' dorms. Once she was settled in her bed, curtains drawn, ignoring the looks she got from Anna and the girls who were all gathered on the same bed, she slapped herself in the forehead.

'Keep it together Ali.' She shook her head and pulled her jumper off. Laying back she felt a smile cross her face when she heard '_I still can't believe he went to all that trouble to snog you_' and actually let a laugh escape at _'you're just a commodity Anna, that's why they try so hard to get you.'_

'Would you shut **up **Emily?' She could always rely on these girls to laugh at.

* * *

><p>AN: I know in the books they only have school robes and no real uniform, but I always found that a little poxy and odd... so I'm just following the movies take on their uniforms. Sorry for any mistakes. Super sick today. Hope you enjoyed it.


	7. Chapter 7

Something was definitely up and Aaliyah was finding herself imitating their bloody caretaker Filch in a means to find out. Over the past three weeks she hadn't handed out a single detention to any of the four resident troublemakers of Hogwarts. Remus had gotten considerably less flung his way since his fifth year, but what was going on at current was simply ridiculous. She was even opting to eat her meals at the busiest times of the day this week in the hopes of figuring out what the four boys were playing at. She hadn't caught them, not once! In three solid weeks. No funny business, none at all. Not one jinx. She'd actually given Snape more detentions after she'd found him accompanied by Wilkes, Avery and Mulciber, practicing their hurling hexes on a group of first years brushing up on their flying after classes.

That was far from an enjoyable night, looking after those four. They might not have caused as much of a ruckus as the four boys from Gryffindor, but when they did play up it made Aaliyah's skin crawl. It was a vast change from the last detention she'd overseen with Sirius who had made quick work of the remaining scorch marks left by their Gryffindor classmate. He'd even managed to thank her before running off to help Remus with god knows what.

'You. Come here.' She motioned to a first year boy coming out of the boy's toilets on the third floor. He complied rather quickly with a smile. 'Was there anyone in there with you?'

'What?' The boy seemed confused. 'No.' Concerned now.

'Where _are_ they!?' She'd literally scaled the castle as soon as their last class had finished. The first year seemed mildly worried but uneager to leave. Aaliyah just raised a brow at him when she realised he was still there before turning and leaving to make for the Gryffindor tower.

Once she'd made her way up there and into the common room she was about ready to start throwing books when there was no Remus, Peter, James or Sirius to be seen. She spotted Lily not far off sitting with Mary McDonald and decided to take the matter up with her.

'Evans!' Lily jumped out of her seat swinging around to meet Aaliyah's face.

'Adams! Holy cow I thought you were Potter.' She breathed a sigh of relief.

'Where are they?!' Aaliyah flung her hands out as if Lily's sentence only added to the matter. 'Not one bloody jinx in _weeks_.'

'You say that like it's a bad thing?' Lily looked sideways at Mary, noting that Ali's hair seemed a little more wild than usual. Aaliyah was usually one to pay a fair amount of care towards her appearance wanting to be neat for her role as prefect, but this morning she hadn't even bathed and had thrown her long curls into a matted bun on top of her head so better to find the boys.

'It is!' she emphasised with her hands. 'The longer they go between pranks the worse the prank! Think Evans!' Aaliyah grabbed Lily's shoulders and shook her. Mary started to laugh into her hand beside them at Ali's outburst but Lily saw the reasoning behind the madness mid shake.

'Oh **no.**' Lily's eyes went wide. 'You're completely right, all four of them have been missing from meals for _weeks_.' Aaliyah wanted to cry. She understood. Finally someone understood! 'Does anyone know where they are?'

'I've literally searched the whole castle and I can't find them anywhere. I'm losing it!' Ali pointed to the birds' nest currently renting out the space on her head.

Mary let loose her laugh at that. 'We can see.' She shut right up though when Aaliyah turned her crazed stare on her. No one really knew Ali all that well and that look would have scared Mary even if it had come from Lily. Lily on the other hand hadn't noticed and was going over something in her head. She didn't even notice Mary scream as Ali shook her trying to make her understand the severity of what could potentially be happening under their very noses.

'Whoa, Adams. Calm down.' Lily grabbed Ali off her friend and led her over to the portrait. It was almost the end of term and the boys were dramatic enough to be planning some elaborate Christmas prank. They were climbing out the portrait hole together, Ali breathing a little easier now that someone was listening to her ravings, when they ran head first into Severus Snape. Lily sighed.

'What is it Sev?' Ali noted not only the nickname, but the fact that Lily refused to look Snape in the eye. Ali avoided most Slytherin students as an unwritten rule, especially the likes of Snape and his gang. Those students all dabbled in particularly dark stuff at the best of times. She never fully understood why Lily wasted any time on him at all. Snape seemed to survey Ali quickly, then ignored her presence focusing on Lily.

'I- Just…' He looked at Ali once more. 'Could we talk alone?'

'No.' Lily bit out. She fished something out of her robes pocket and began drumming it on her leg. Snape of course watched her every move.

'Can't you just accept my apology?' Snape asked, watching her play with the muggle pen with a scowl.

'Why? So you can go say horrible stuff about me to your friends behind my back? I mean the only time you ever attempt these spineless apologies is when none of your goons will see you at it.' Aaliyah was beginning to feel very out of place. 'The people you hang out with actively hate me Severus. They go out of their way to ridicule me. How do you intend to balance that little fact? Pretend I don't exist in front of them, then suck up to me when we're alone? Yeah, no thanks.' She grabbed Aaliyah's hand at that and led them away.

'I- I am sorry Lily.' Snape spoke weakly after them but Lily made no means of replying. She was completely silent, holding onto Aaliyah's hand incredibly tight. Ali had literally no clue how to handle the situation. It was the most awkward experience she'd ever stood in on. She wasn't sure what to say to Lily at all. She would have made a rubbish best friend she thought. She tried to think what it was you were supposed to do when whatever the hell that was just happened. She realized it was probably lucky she didn't have anyone close enough to fail her lack of empathy skills miserably on.

'Ah, Evans. Not that I don't find hand holding totally endearing. But you're kind of squishing my bones.' Ali let out and Lily immediately stopped and turned to her dropping her hand, eyes looking a little watery. Ali yelped at that. 'No, no! Here.' She grabbed her hand and squeezed it with all her might. 'Hand holding, yay!'

Lily laughed at that and wiped away a stay tear. 'I'm so sorry. The moron just really riles me up lately.' She clearly meant Snape and Ali pat her shoulder awkwardly unsure of what else to do. In her opinion you should just tell people you didn't like to ping off and that was the end of it. What was the point of crying over some jerk that called you names? Or even giving him the chance to make you cry? But then again Lily had loads of friends and admirers so maybe she should have tried a little harder to be like her.

'Yes. Complete moron.' Ali agreed, taking in a sharp breath. She made a face trying with all her might to channel her father who always seemed to know the right thing to say when she was feeling down. Lily started laughing.

'I never noticed how expressive your face is.' Lily gave her a weak hug around the shoulders with one arm and Ali kind of froze. This was definitely not her area and she was actually thankful when they heard James Potter call out next.

'Evans!' Lily abandon the hug and turned to meet James and Remus as they came towards the two girls. 'You alright Evans?' James, who had a very smug look on his face previously, switched instantly as he saw Lily wipe away the last remains of her minor outburst. James visibly puffed up and looked around. 'Where is he? I'll hex him into next term!'

'Shut up Potter.' Lily's words sounded harsh but Ali noticed her smile. It was very confusing to Ali and her eyes narrowed as she stood back to view the exchange. Remus joined her looking sideways at her expression. James and Lily were arguing about something when Remus spoke up.

'Did Snape do something cruel again?' He enquired lightly.

'I don't know what the bloody hell is going on. He said about four words to her and then she was crying. They weren't even mean. And now she's swearing at Potter but smiling. Honestly, am I missing something?' Remus actually bit his lip to stop from smirking at Ali's complete confusion. Since the time they had practiced the aguamenti charm together in the library Ali had found Remus joining her now and then at her table. It wasn't front page news for anyone but herself as no one would have noticed. But she had come to enjoy their little unplanned meet ups. Mostly they just read silently together but it was comforting to her. Remus was definitely a very easy person to be around.

'Hold on. How did you know that Snape was with us? And, wait, _where the bloody hell have you been_?' The reason they had ventured out of the common room now came crashing back to her and Lily seemed to disconnect from where she had been arguing with James. James and Remus exchanged looks.

'Well would you look at the time!' Remus chimed.

'We best be off. Things to do. Slytherin's to hex.' James added looking around. 'If Snivellus isn't bothering you anymore-'

'How did you know that? How did you _know_ that?' Ali felt her previous crazed demeanour flash back. She needed answers darn it. 'And you haven't hexed anyone in weeks. I'm on to you lot!' She shouted out after the two boys as they ran off from where they came. 'Holy cricket I'm losing the plot.' Aaliyah stared after them and Lily came to stand beside her, clearly just as bewildered.

* * *

><p>'You lot are infuriating with your fixation on <em>girls<em>.' Peter huffed when James and Remus returned. He and Sirius were still stationed around the large table housing their newest, and what Peter believed to be their most ambivalent idea yet. They had spent weeks pouring themselves over this idea of making a map of the school. One night three weeks ago Sirius had come barging into the dorm after a detention announcing that he'd done it. He had come up with their greatest plan yet.

_'__A map!' Sirius announced jumping onto James' bed and bouncing up and down, throwing his school jumper on one of the many piles of clothes around the room. _

_'__What are you on about Padfoot?' James smiled up at him rather bemused._

_'__A map Prongs my prince. A MAP.' Sirius nodded and Peter stood up from his bed and walked over to join them. They both looked up at Sirius smiling as he bounced around so very clearly high on _something_. 'Bless little Adams. She tries so hard to keep us in check but the little prefie has given me the greatest idea yet.'_

_'__Get on with it Padfoot!' Remus snapped joining them all on James' bed. He was always moody close to the full moon. Sirius jumped up once more crossing his legs in the air and landing neatly._

_'__We're going to make a map of the school my friends. And it's going to be _great_.' He was positively beaming._

_All the boys clicked at once. 'A map.' James and Peter repeated and Sirius turned his attention to Remus._

_'__Moony? As minister of the pranks committee, what say you?' Sirius looked like he was about to explode._

_'__I dare say senior undersecretary Padfoot, it's highly doable.' Remus nodded once. 'Features?' Remus enquired._

_'__We'll have to scout out all the secret passages!' James called out as Sirius settled back into where James was propping his head up by the top of the bed, making himself comfortable, head on James' hip._

_'__Better make it as inconspicuous as possible.' Peter added settling in and throwing a quidditch jersey to the floor._

_'__Enchantments so that only we can view it.' The cogs were turning in Remus's head already. _

_'__And!' Sirius looked perfectly beside himself as he sat up now, looking around at this three best friends with the best part he'd been saving. 'We're going to figure out a charm to make everyone in the castle show up on this map. So we know where everyone is. No matter what they're doing. The map will know. All the time. We're never getting sprung again lads.' All three of the boys sounded off in rejoice, cheering at Sirius's idea. James grabbed Sirius from behind and pulled him into a manly hug with lots of slapping of backs and yelling around the dorm. _

'We're not fixated on _girls_.' James screwed his face up at Peter and there was a silence for a moment resonating around where they sat in the room of requirements. Remus had a brow raised and Sirius and Peter just stared at James now with highly unamused looks. 'Just one.' James added and they all joined in the laughter. Sirius grabbed a bit of pie from where they had gathered food. They didn't have time to go down to meals with what they were plotting.

'Adams is onto us by the way.' James added looking at Sirius.

'Ah, bright little witch that one.' He smirked. 'Albeit a little mental.'

'She's actually rather sweet if you get to know her.' Remus provided taking a seat by Sirius and examining the map as it faded in and out on the parchment. They were still drawing up a lot of the castle and working on a lot of the spells to make it exactly the way they wanted it. They were having the most trouble with the homonculous charm as it was very advanced magic. It had taken them over two weeks just to figure out how to cast it after Remus had found a book on it. And even now the effects kept wearing off after an hour or so. They needed to make it stick. Permanently. They had Gryffindor tower drawn up in the earliest stages, which was how they spotted Snape lurking around the portrait as Evans and Adams had been making their way out together. James immediately took action pulling Remus along as he was closest at the time.

Sirius knitted his dark brows together staring at Remus. 'And you're 'getting to know' her are you Moony?' Remus detected a hint of something in Sirius accusation but couldn't quite place it. Peter looked between the two, his eyes bouncing back and forth without his head moving as the two boys surveyed each other for a moment. He just rolled his eyes turning to James.

'Prongs how are you going with the concealing charm?' He asked and Remus and Sirius turned their attention to the others.

'My brain is fried.' He let out a deep sigh slumping down into one of the chairs. 'Oy Moony, are you going home for Christmas this year?'

'Yeah. Seeing as the full moon is next week I won't have to worry mum and dad with a transformation if I do.' Remus contemplated Lyall and Hope spending their Christmas night trying to subdue their werewolf son. It didn't bringing him warm fuzzy feelings.

'Well it's Christmas at the Potter's manor for me.' Sirius smiled thoughtfully. 'Bloody thankful to be out of that hell-hole I used to call home at least. This year would be fantastic without my mother putting coal in my stocking. If it wasn't for all the bloody killings going on with the rise of you-know-who.' Sirius sobered thinking about not only the family he'd been disowned by, but the war raging outside the walls of their safe-haven school. It was odd to think that they were sat here, writing up an enchanted map to better navigate themselves around prefects and caretakers. Some of their classmates where taking leaves of absences' thanks to family members going missing, or straight up murders happening around them.

Even some of the children _in_ the school were getting darker by the day. Mainly the gang of Slytherin's Snape busied himself with. Sirius looked at James intently.

'Sometimes I wish we could hurry up and graduate already so we could help out.' Sirius supplied, balling his hands up into fists and banging them down on the table.

'Hey, calm down there mate. We will.' James winked. 'I still reckon ol' Dumbledore is up to something with him disappearing from the school so much. We'll get it out of him. Just give it time.' James was always the best at defusing Sirius's irrational tempers. While he tended to his best friend, Peter made his way over to the food pile and grabbed a bar of honeydukes best chocolate and a ham sandwich.

'Moony.' He called out before tossing him the chocolate which Remus caught easily and smiled in return. Sirius's attention was turned back to pouring over a book with James while Remus unwrapped and bit into his favourite food. He looked around at his three friends and smiled. He could never thank Dumbledore enough for allowing him to come to this school. He probably should have told his friends off more, and definitely shouldn't have helped them out as much in the shadows, but being who he was Remus found them hard to deny. He truly adored his friends more than any of them would know.

Peter placed a hand on his shoulder, leaning over him to get a better look at the map while taking a bite out of his sandwich and in that moment Remus felt like he could freeze time and be happy forever.

'What do you guys think of throwing a good old Christmas prank?' Peter asked, mouth still quite full.

'Would we have the time?' James looked up. 'Don't forget quidditch season has started and I am captain now.' He smirked at that, with a face that the three others were all aware meant he was thinking about Evans. Sirius smacked him.

'Get your mind out of the forbidden forest you dirty stag.' To say that Sirius, Remus and Peter were all in tune with James's thought pattern would be the understatement of the century. It really only revolved around four things. Mischief, quidditch, food, and Lily Evans. Not in that order.

'Sorry pumpkin. You know you always come first.' All four of the boys laughed at that. Sirius looked back at the map as the homonculous charm wore off for the hundredth time and wailed loudly.

'We'll be dead before we get this bloody thing right! Fifty years on and it'll still be fading in and out. Moony will be Minister of Magic, Prongs will be retired from the Tornadoes or the Magpies or something. Wormtail will still be here 'cause he can't pass charms and I'll be dead from the stress of this bloody _map!_' He cried grabbing at his hair while the other three boys shook their heads.

'You're being dramatic.' All three of them supplied in unison.


	8. Chapter 8

Aaliyah stared at her reflection in the prefects' bathroom alone. Her hair was wet and everywhere. She was pretty used to it. She ran her fingers through her curls pulling the ends up to her face and surveying how much lighter they were compared to the top. In her holidays back home she spent most of her time in the sun. It was always sunny where she lived, winter's in Australia were usually hotter than summer's in any part of Britain. If there was one thing she didn't like about her appearance it was the fact that she could never really put a name to any of her features. Her hair was light blonde on the ends, but a very warm honey brown as it got further up.

Her eyes although very bright green could sometimes be blue. She once had a fight with Kanika debating that they were definitely green, whereas her mother deemed them to be bluer. What the bloody hell did she know, Aaliyah thought? Her skin was the same. She wasn't pale by anyone's standards, nor did her skin resemble her mother's very dark brown tones. She tanned rather effortlessly, yet in the longer terms she could get fairly pasty also. What the bloody hell was she? Some freaky half breed of cultures. She would have at least felt better about it had her brother Tucker been the same. Yet Tucker took after Kanika so strikingly you'd have thought he was created from her and her alone.

She sighed. She missed her little brother. But there was only a few days before the end of term now and she would be able to return home to see him. Merlin was she thanking the cosmos for that as she was close to ripping out her hair, no matter its colour, thanks to the Gryffindor sixth year boys. Six weeks on since they had started disappearing from the public eye and she was still trying to figure out what they were up to, failing miserably. She quickly scooped her hair up at the thought and twisted it into a bun on her head and grabbed her toiletries bag to apply some makeup. Thankfully she was finished by the time she heard someone joining her.

'Morning.' James said brightly. Aaliyah didn't reply. She just clutched her toiletries bag closer to her chest and narrowed her eyes watching him as he proceeded further inside. He smirked at her, tipping an invisible hat as he went. 'You can stay if you want?' James supplied pulling a mangy old Tutshill Tornadoes jersey over his head. Aaliyah's eyes widened and she left the bathroom at a bit of a run.

'Stupid Potter.' She muttered descending the stairs to the library. She always gave Sirius a hard time about being a prat, but in truth James really was his equal, if not worse. There was just something about Sirius that led her to despising him much more greatly than James. James was an arrogant bully to most people, being the only child of a vastly wealthy family it was common knowledge his parents doted on him. When it came right down to it, he and Sirius truly could have been twins. But Ali had managed to evade James for the most part, he was more Lily's problem. And he had manners, she thought. He was always very polite and proper. Sirius might have been proper but he could very well have been brought up by dogs for all Ali knew. It certainly would have explained a lot.

When she made it into the library she bumped into Dirk Cresswell who smiled at her politely. 'Going home for Christmas Adams?' He asked sheepishly.

'Yeah actually. You?' She never knew quite how to navigate these hallway conversations. She wondered how most of the student body could stand being in each other's presence every second of the day without running out of things to say? It must have been very tiring.

'Yeah. Christmas is always a big affair back home for me. My parents always make us go to church services and nativity plays.' Aaliyah frowned at that showing her confusion. She remembered that Dirk was a muggle-born and smiled to the best of her ability wondering exactly what a nativity play was and what kind of ritual it included. She learnt as much as she could in her muggle studies class but they truly were fascinating things to be sure. When she made no further comment Dirk continued on.

'Oh, will you be coming back in for Slughorn's Christmas party?' Slughorn held an annual Christmas party for his favourite students and those he believed to be worthy, Dirk and Aaliyah being among them.

'Well, I suppose so.' Her mind had been so jumbled lately with making sure all her classes where perfectly on point along with prefect duties and chasing Sirius and his gang around in between. Dirk had been talking but Ali was lost in her own head. He cleared his throat and brought her attention back. 'I'm sorry?'

'Would you like to go with me? I mean, Slughorn's parties always seem to be coupled affairs after all? It makes sense, if you haven't already been asked?' Aaliyah found it rather curious that Dirk was now blushing. After a sentence like that it would have seemed he was asking on a formality alone.

'Uh, yeah. Ok. I guess that would be more amiable than turning up alone like I usually do.' Dirk laughed politely. Aaliyah found him to be a little odd. What she said wasn't nearly funny at all. In fact it was really lame as she usually did turn up to Slughorn's dinner's and parties early and very much alone. Slughorn never seemed to notice and always hustled her in to chat about her grades and family affairs. She offered Dirk a terse smile as he bid farewell for now. They did have prefect duties together tomorrow night and classes together that day even.

Being thoroughly glad that was over she made her way over to her table. She was slightly taken aback to see Remus was there, but not sitting, instead looking through the books closest to her usual space. It was only when she placed her things down that she realised she was still holding onto her toiletry bag and pyjamas, which she stuffed into her school bag so fast it made Remus jump.

'Oh ha-' he contemplated something for a brief second looking very sleepy. 'Aaliyah?' That made Ali's heart flutter a little. She was certain that was the first time anyone had called her by her first name at Hogwarts besides Dumbledore. She took a seat and smiled back at Remus.

'Ali, if you prefer?' she felt her cheeks warm a little. 'Only my parents and Dumbledore use my full name.' Remus joined her while she contemplated something. 'But then I guess that's pretty much everyone that uses it at all.' When she looked over at Remus he was clearly holding back a smile on his airy heavy-eyed face. There was a freshly healing cut on his right cheek that she had asked him about last week that he had cleverly negated.

'Well, Ali it is then.' This time her stomach felt light and she smiled involuntarily. 'Why are you down here so early?' Remus didn't have his bag or any of his school things with him Ali noticed. He was barely in his uniform with just their white school shirt and the boys black trousers on, even his prefect badge was missing.

'Uh, Remus.' She had no idea why but her stomach did a small backflip when he smiled at her after she used his first name. She didn't know what the bloody hell was going on with her insides but she was sure she didn't like it. 'Why are you checking out _Hogwarts: A History?_ Six years in and I'd imagine you'd know enough by now?'

Remus let forth a very unconvincing laugh while hiding the second book he was holding under the Hogwarts: A History text. 'Just brushing up. You can never know too much about Hogwarts.' Aaliyah knew a cover up when she saw one. Running around after Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew for the last three and a half months had taught her enough.

'Remus Lupin. What are you hiding?' Remus grabbed the books and rushed around the table.

'Really got to run Ali! Might see you later!' and with that he was off. Ali huffed so loudly she received a 'shush!' from Madam Pince who was putting books away close by. She would have been a lot angrier had it been anyone else, but she decided to let it go. She was still trying to figure out what the bloody hell was happening to her stomach whilst they'd been talking. She'd never quite felt this way before and thinking about Remus calling her by her preferred nickname made her blush. She touched her cheeks and wondered to herself if this meant she was getting sick.

* * *

><p>Back upstairs in the prefects bathroom James gave himself a once over in the mirror before nodding with a smile. 'Handsome devil.' He concluded out loud to himself and tried to make sure the front of his hair sat up the way he liked it to. Not that he really had to put too much effort into making his hair any more wild than it already was, but he knew that if it didn't dry in at least some kind of orderly fashion it would be destroyed the minute he found Lily. She liked to point out that he messed up his hair on purpose, but in truth it was actually the opposite. He had a nervous twitch around her that caused his hand to immediately assault his hair without him even realizing. Not that he'd ever let on to it.<p>

He was James Potter after all, not some stupid hufflepuff git that didn't know left from right. He was the quidditch captain that had led them to their first victory of the season last month against Slytherin, he thought, straightening his badge on his white shirt. He contemplated tucking it in then decided against it. It'd just come back out down the track so what was the point? Once he'd pulled his robes on over his shirt, opting to leave off his school jumper today, he gathered up his things and started to whistle as he left the prefects bathroom. He took the stairs two at a time back up to Gryffindor tower.

James Potter was certainly a morning person. Always had been. When he'd climbed through the portrait hole and made his way up the boys staircase he threw his dorm door open loudly and was met by Peter who was dressed and clearly a little ticked off.

'What's up Petey?' He asked in a sing-song voice.

'I'm _not _Petey. And I'm not bloody bothering with him again, he can sleep through his potions class! I'm not even _in_ potions.' He sounded rightly peeved as he pushed by James and was out the door in no time. James found his attitude a little strange as he and Peter were usually the morning crew. They woke up the earliest together and spent their mornings with a higher attitude than the other two. Remus would walk into their bed posts for an hour before he figured out what was going on and Sirius-

'Ah.' James realised what Peter had meant. He flung his effects towards his bed, missing it completely, and made his way over to Sirius's. Their dorm always kind of looked like a bomb had hit it. Back in their second year James and Sirius had figured out about the house elves at Hogwarts and commissioned them to keep out of their dorm as they kept cleaning things up and it made it harder for them to find. After all, what self-respecting guy cared about putting their socks away? Well besides Peter. He was the clean one. In their third year he used to run along behind the boys and try to keep the dorm some semblance of tidy but sort of gave up when he realised he was living with possibly three of the most untidy boys he'd ever met.

Peter's bed was the first on the left when you walked in, and it was the cleanest spot in the room. He had his things away in his trunk and his bed was always made. There was only a few things lying around near his bed but it got progressively worse.

Remus's bed was the next one and although he was tidier than Sirius and James, he was a not nearly deserving of the word tidy. There were clothes _everywhere_. Flung around the banisters of the bed, scrunched up and stuffed in any place they would fit. Books laying open, books with socks in them as markers for where he was up to, books open upside down under his bed gathering dust. Wrappers of honeydukes best chocolate littering nearly every space of wooden floor within a two metre radius of his bed. Chocolate crumbs staining his bed sheets as he usually nibbled at it in bed at night coming up to the full moon. And after the full moon. And, well let's face it, every other night probably too. If you wanted something from Remus Lupin, one only need supply him with chocolate.

Remus had a calendar counting down the days to the full moon stuck up to the right of his bed. There was a bin in between Remus' and Sirius's bed that could very nearly have something living inside of it, they weren't sure, and no one was really game to go near it anymore. Sirius was the worst out of the lot. James put it down to him having freedom at Hogwarts whereas back at the Black Manor he would have had to keep his room tidy save getting a good beating around the head from his mother.

Sirius was dead to the world on his bed, like he usually was at this time of morning. He was flat on his back, one hand resting on his stomach clutching his wand and the other flung out beside him. He had no sheets on his bed as he was a messy sleeper and they were clutching on for dear life draping from his bedsides. He had blown up one of his pillows for fun weeks ago and there were still feathers everywhere from it. There were dirty dishes covering his bedside table, a sock poking out of one of the cups. Their prized possession, the marauders map, not far from his grasp. Most of the castle had now been sketched out and the homonculous charm was lasting longer and longer. There was still a long way to go, but they were never prouder of anything in all their lives. Sirius had a few muggle posters up of motorbikes that Remus had gotten for him at his request to annoy his mother. When he ran away from home over the break and turned up at James' door however they were a few of the things he had saved.

James smiled after skipping over to his best mate's bed and plopping down on it, pushing his leg out of the way.

'Sod off Pete!' was all Sirius got out before curling up into the foetal position, hugging his wand.

'Morning sunshine.' James tickled Sirius' back and he just grumbled. 'Sluggy won't be happy if you're late to class. You'll want to get a shower in mate you kind of smell.' Sirius didn't move or make any attempt to let James know he was listening. James sighed. This was always the worst part of the day, trying to get Sirius Princess Black to come to terms with the fact that he couldn't stay in bed until noon. James looked over to his own bed, which was just as bad as Sirius's albeit the sheets were still semi-connected to the mattress and there were less feathers around. James had a very many Tutshill Tornadoes posters with the players zooming around on their brooms pinned up. He had also ripped part of the drapes of his bed on the side closest to the door. They were now hanging limply from where he had tried to use them as a cape and tripped over them in the process, tearing them as he fell to the floor. He chuckled at the memory.

'Come on Padfoot, up you get!' he snaked his arms under Sirius' and made to lift him up but all he got in return was a swift elbow to the head, which knocked his glasses to the floor as he groaned. 'Bloody hell Sirius we _really_ need to work on your morning skills.'

At least when he'd located his glasses and replaced them on his face Sirius was now in a sitting position looking very dazed and arguably ridiculous. His usually well-kept hair sat flat stuck to one side and puffing out of the other and he had drool glistening on his cheek. The side of his face with the drool was also marred with red lines and his grey eyes were only barely half open, his long lashes still knit together.

'You elbowed me.' James rubbed his head.

'You deserved it.' Sirius's lip turned up. Oh yeah, he was in one of his moods alright. James and Peter often argued that the two of them should have received as many house points as they lost from their pranking endeavours for getting Sirius and Remus out of bed in the mornings. Remus was not nearly as bad as Sirius, who usually woke up exactly as he was now, grumpy as all hell and more likely to jinx you than speak to you. Remus on the other hand, who James had managed to get up earlier in an attempt to get more information from the library for the map, was usually still half asleep come midday. Needless to say that any classes he took in the mornings were not his strong suit.

''Searl- uh.' James turned around at Remus's voice and saw him standing in the doorway, decidedly confused. Then something clicked. 'It's too early for this.' He decided, marched inside and threw himself and the books he'd located on James' orders down on his bed. James silently cursed at that, it had taken him twenty minutes to get Remus up and that's why he had left Sirius up to Peter.

'That little rat.' James muttered looking around and then he heard something coming from downstairs.

'Come on Mary! It doesn't matter how much time you spend on it, it's going to look the same.'

'Evans!' James jumped up abandoning his previous task easily. He didn't even listen to the 'leave it alone Prongs' he got from Remus, he just took the stairs as many as he could at a time but made sure the last steps that he could be seen taking were very casual ones.

'Alright there Evans?' He tried his utmost to sound more mature. Manlier. That's what his dad had told him to do, be a man. She'd notice him if he was a good manly... well there had been a lot more to it, but as he remembered the only thing that stuck was 'man'.

'Morning Potter.' Lily replied watching out of the corner of her eye as he approached. She wouldn't turn her full attention on him, he would take far too much satisfaction from that.

'Interested in making some magic together? My wand is at the _ready_.' James had taken to coming up with severely bad pickup lines for the last three months. He'd noticed a change in Lily after last term when Snape had called her that foul name. Usually she was more than ready to jump down his throat and curse him into the next week but this year seemed different, if only slightly. He didn't know what it was, but she wasn't handing him out detentions, nor was she making him feel like the sight of him was making her furious. So he decided to play with the newfound freedom.

'Oh my _god _Potter!' Lily shrieked and smacked him with the copy of the daily prophet she'd been holding. Marlene who was stood beside her was laughing loudly. She also received a smack. 'Don't encourage him Marls!' James rubbed his shoulder where he had taken the hit but could have sworn he could see a smile on her face. He wouldn't have continued with them unless he'd seen that smile each time.

'Mary! Hurry _up_!' Lily looked over to James and he supplied her with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes.

'Truly though Evans. How are- er- your pens going?' James felt his nervous side rearing its head as his hand made its way up to his hair. It dived inside his disorderly locks and rummaged around. What the hell was he doing? Trying to find a rabbit in there? He quickly pulled it from his head, trying his best to look as cool as was allowable in the current situation.

'You know I think I might,' Marlene snorted trying not to laugh, 'go get Mary.' She dodged Lily's paper once more and made for the stairs.

'I have no friends.' Lily let out in the lowest menacing voice she could manage. James's heart sort of skipped a beat because he found her angry face to be among his favourites. It was unfathomably cute. The way her pink bottom lip pushed upwards. The way her strikingly green eyes tried their best to look irate but adopted more of a smacked puppy look. To anyone else Lily probably would have looked rather scary, but to James she just looked endearing. He caught himself smiling like an idiot and quickly made use of his hands, pulling his glasses off to clean them.

'So, what are your plans for Christmas Evans?' When he looked up replacing his glasses, Lily was scooping the hair up off her neck in an attempt to secure it in a ponytail. She paid nearly no attention to him and at that point he was glad because he most certainly did not look 'manly' as the motions of her hands touching the back of her neck almost made him weak at the knees.

'I'm- are you okay Potter?' Lily had turned around to answer him and found him looking decidedly strange.

'Oh, yeah. Fine. Great actually.' James wanted to punch himself for getting caught looking like a moron next to a veela. 'You just look really pretty today.' He admitted and at that Lily's eyes connected with his. She seemed mildly shocked by his words as she forgot what she had been doing with her hair and it dropped back down to frame her face. The silence between them brought up some very awkward feelings for James and he began to panic.

'Ah, yeah, you're so hot Evans, _aguamenti_ couldn't put you out!' He let loose a loud laugh at that and didn't see Lily brandish her wand.

'_Tarantallegra._' Lily spoke the word as Marlene and Mary joined her from the girls' staircase and began sniggering when James' legs started to dance uncontrollably. They exited the common room while James called out to Sirius and Remus trying furiously to stop himself from kicking everything in sight.

* * *

><p>AN; Lalalalaa I'm having so much fun writing this you don't underSTAND.


	9. Chapter 9

As Ali stared out the window of the Hogwarts Express she couldn't help the smile that came to her face when the memory of James Potter dancing around the Gryffindor common room came back to her from three days prior. She'd come back from the library to stow away her pyjamas and such when she came through the portrait to him clutching to a nearby armchair while his legs decided to take part in a traditional Irish step dance against his will. Once she had hit him with the counter-jinx he had thanked her profusely but that didn't stop it from being entirely too funny.

She was happy to be going home though, as the Hogwarts Express made its final few miles she realized that the train was a lot emptier than it usually was. Many parents were telling their children to stay at Hogwarts as it was much safer for them there than out in the open. Just yesterday a hufflepuff fourth year boy was escorted from the great hall during breakfast after he had received word that his older brother, an Auror fresh out of training for the ministry had been among the recent escalating death toll of the war. Aaliyah fiddled with her wand and stood up electing to go on one last patrol of the train before it arrived in London.

When the train came to a stop she quickly made her way to the closest exit and spotted her family immediately. Her tiny mother, who she was thankfully half a foot taller than now, waved happily. Her father who was only slightly taller than the average wizard looked like a giant beside Kanika. And in between Christian and Kanika, holding onto both of their hands, was her little brother. He broke loose from them as soon as he saw his sister and made a run for her. Aaliyah dropped down to her knees and pulled him into the tightest hug she could manage.

'You're squishing me you giant!' Tucker complained after a moment and Aaliyah let him down to breathe. She couldn't take any kind of offense to the things he said, she just adored him.

'I've missed you!' she put her hands up to his tiny face and he gave her a wide smile, his baby teeth having all very much come through, but there was a large gap in between his two front ones.

'I guess you were _kind_ of missed.' Tucker debated this for a moment. 'I mean, I definitely missed snowball.' Tucker waited for his big sisters reaction but she had missed his quick-witted replies far too much to be angered by them yet. Give it a day.

'Come here!' Kanika grabbed her daughter the minute she was close enough and pulled her into a hug. 'Have you grown? Stop doing that!' She smacked Aaliyah lightly as Christian pulled her sideways into his body, winking at her from where he stood over them all. Tucker made hands at her that meant he wanted to be lifted and she happily obliged.

'Gosh Dad, you're looking snappy.' She commented, taking a step back with Tucker in her arms. Her father was dressed in a very nice grey-teal set of dress robes. He had a silver pocket watch showing on his waist coat and his tie was perfectly tied. He made a show of it as he grabbed the sides of his long jacket and provided his daughter with a lopsided grin. Aaliyah was laughing until she saw Sirius Black in her head doing the exact same move when she had found him on the sixth floor jinxing first years to slide along its length.

Her eyes went wide at the similarities but she quickly shook it off when Tucker decided to start informing her of all the Ministry work he'd been doing while she was off gallivanting around at school like a ninny. He was four and he was already accomplishing more than she could ever dream. Or so he told her. She just nodded with a smile on her face. They located Snowball and made to exit platform nine and three quarters to make for Diagon alley where they would use the floo network to get home.

By the time they had made it to Diagon alley Tucker had half-heartedly insulted his big sister more than a dozen times trying to get a rise out of her. He took after their mother in looks, no doubt about it. But when it came down to personality he was Christian all over. Christian adored his wife more than anything else in the world but it was easily known that his favourite past time was seeing exactly how far he could push his boundaries with her before she turned around and hit him. People that knew Kanika knew not to mention her height. Christian made a point of stating it at least once a day. Were Kanika not so in love with him, she surely would have killed him.

'Did you want to buy any of your friend's presents this year darling?' Kani asked Aaliyah as the bricks of the leaky cauldron sealed up behind them. Ali froze slightly with Tucker in her arms still but recovered almost instantly.

'Nah, should be right Mum.' She never let on to her parents about just how little friends she had, nor did she talk about how many she had either. She left school talk to the very minimum when she was home deciding it was best to just leave them out of how little socializing she actually participated in. It wasn't like she was completely alone when she was there. She did speak to other students. This year especially saw a rise in her interactions after becoming a prefect she found she was far less in the shadows than she used to be.

'Yah-yah doesn't have any friends.' Tucker grinned at her. 'She's just a big book head.'

'You're right. I don't need friends. I have you.' Ali supplied merely hugging him tighter and at that Tucker seemed to give up his attempt to annoy his sister and hugged her back. The mention of the word friend brought Aaliyah's mind to none other than Remus Lupin though and she wondered if she was to buy him a present, what on earth would it be? She really didn't know him all that well, even if the thought of him made her smile.

As they walked the streets of Diagon Alley it became apparent just how untouched Hogwarts truly was. There was always a reminder that their world was at war while at school with the list of missing, tortured, and dead in their morning and evening paper deliveries. Or seeing students not coming back after breaks. But Diagon Alley showed something else. A place that would usually be bustling with witches and wizards was now rather bare. At least every second shop had closed down. Their usually bright window displays boarded up with wooden planks, a few of them not even bothering as their widows had been smashed. The places that were still open had ministry flyers littering the walls. Each displaying an undesirable or words of caution.

Christian came up close to Ali and hugged her into his side, doing the same to Kanika to his left. He seemed to be very switched on, his eyes darting around the streets and fixing on some of the pop-up stalls that had made home around the place. Some of the wizards would stop and stare as the family passed by but mostly everyone that was on the street was making their way into the next store, never staying out in the open for too long.

'You kind of forget how bad it's gotten when you're away at school.' Ali admitted, hugging Tucker into her as she walked in time with her father and mother.

'Never forget Ali-bear. You can bet you-know-who doesn't, so you shouldn't either.' Her father suddenly seemed a lot taller at that moment. Almost like he commanded respect. Ali wasn't sure what it was he did at the Ministry anymore, he only really told her about the more fun parts, yet she assumed it had something to do with the war. Her mother ushered them into Gringotts where she withdraw some money while the three others waited. They only made their way to a few shops before they decided it was best to get going.

'Oh Mum, I need some dress robes. Professor Slughorn wants me at the Christmas party again this year.' She remembered at the last minute.

'Chris could you get Tuck home, I worry.' Kanika requested.

'Anything for the world's smallest witch.' Christian winked and before Kanika could hit him, he'd scooped his son up and parted ways. Ali was smiling as she and her mother made their way into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It didn't take them long to find some nice ones to try on and there was a moment when Ali came out of the fitting room and hugged her mother for no real reason. Kanika just stroked her back in a soothing fashion knowing it meant she was happy to be with her.

'I miss you all so much when I'm away.' Ali admitted letting her mother go and looking at herself one last time in the mirror. The dress wasn't a show stopper in any sense. Just a simple scoop necked light orange dress that fell to the floor and complimented her skin-tone.

'I don't know how you can miss those two. They drive me up the wall on a daily basis.' Kanika frowned just thinking about their two boys. Christian was raising a miniature version of himself that was for sure. She found it humorous that their daughter looked more like Christian yet acted like her and their son was the spitting image of herself yet could not be denied of being Christian son. She smiled warmly at Aaliyah looking at her in the mirror. 'You look beautiful sweetie.'

As she looped a few of Aaliyah's curls around her fingers and readjusted one of the light sleeves to sit better she told her to get changed so they could join the terrible two at home.

* * *

><p>The next night Aaliyah had progressed from merely smiling at her little brothers wise cracks to handing them straight back to him, which was exactly what Tucker always aimed for. She was lying belly down on her bed going over some of her Arithmancy text when her door creaked open and Tucker poked his head around. She nodded in a fashion that meant he could enter and he ran across the distance between the door and the bed and leapt up onto it, grabbing at her bed sheets to aid him.<p>

'Dad told me to come annoy you 'cause they're having a meeting with Uncle Dumbles.' He announced settling into her side as she wrapped an arm around him. He made a face at her textbook.

'Dumbledore's here?' Ali wasn't all that surprised. When she was younger he used to visit sporadically, but lately his visits were becoming more and more frequent.

'And a whole bunch of other wizards.' Tucker turned his nose up at this and rolled his eyes. 'They're always using our house for meetings.' He started flipping through her pages wondering why on earth anyone would want to read this. 'What kind of silly book only has numbers?'

'Come on, we should go and say hello. Dumbledore is my headmaster. Will be yours too when you go to Hogwarts and study these silly number books.' Ali added and when Tucker replied with exactly what he thought about the 'silly number book' she imagined his Hogwarts time would be rather different from her own. He was most definitely not going to be as quiet as she was, that was for certain.

As the siblings made their way through the stone halls of their home, and down the two flights of stairs to the sitting room where Tucker had informed Ali the adults were, they stopped at the door when they heard low shouting.

'You can't be serious Albus! If you try and tell the ministry that they'll have you locked up!' A voice that neither of the children knew sounded and Aaliyah put a finger up to her lips to indicate to her little brother to be quiet. He grabbed her hand and stood still beside her.

'I am very much serious Gideon. I do believe he has his networks very vastly established within the ministry which is why I assure you, we shan't be letting it go further than these walls.' The familiar sound of her headmasters light voice floated out of the doorway and Aaliyah's interests were more than peaked.

'Well you have our help, no matter what Albus. I have my eyes and ears open all day at work.' Their father spoke. Aaliyah could easily tell this wasn't the time to be stepping in to give a polite hello to her headmaster and knew she should probably have led her brother off somewhere to keep him occupied. But something about the urgency of the conversation had her glued to the spot.

'We've built a good foundation now, we can start fighting back. Let's _fight_.' Another voice neither of them knew. 'The Order has to-'

'Be quiet Benji, you have no idea what you're talking about. I don't want to be scooping your remains off the pavement so be wise for merlin's sake.' Kanika chastised. The only thing that stuck in Ali's head was the word _order_. What the hell were they all talking about? Tucker was starting to get restless beside her. He was somewhat beyond his years mentally, growing up the same way Aaliyah had surrounded by adults. But he was still just four years old and therefore easily distracted. He grabbed onto the dress she was wearing and yanked it a few times to get her attention.

'Can we go find Snowball? I want to dress him in the clothes I made.' He whispered. Aaliyah had attempted to stop her brother from speaking but it was too late now and she knew they were busted when Kanika's head popped around the sitting room's ajar door and she glared at them.

'What do you think you two are doing?' Ali's eyes went wide. If there was one thing you did not do at the Adam's residence it was anger their mother. Ali picked Tucker up as fast as she could and rubbed his head.

'He hurt himself. He wanted you.' Tucker played along almost instantly knowing just how scary their mother could get. He let loose a few tears, both the children knowing their mother couldn't abandon her maternal and healer sides. Kanika quickly rushed over to them and took Tucker from his sister. As she investigated her son's possible wound site Ali looked over to the doorway that was now wide open and had their father and her headmaster standing inside of it.

While Christian didn't seem overly fretful, he looked slightly concerned. For what reason she didn't know. Dumbledore seemed completely unfazed and peered at her over his half-moon spectacles. He wasn't smiling though, which she found unnerving. He was always smiling at school. Beyond them she could see a small gathering of witches and wizards most of which she didn't know. Two large redheaded men stood together near the fireplace at the back of the room.

Another wizard stood closer to them with long wild brown hair and a heavy moustache. She was vaguely aware of this one, Edgar Bones, a friend of her fathers at the ministry. Another man who looked to be the same age as Dumbledore sat on one of the couches beside a friend of her mother's from school, Emmeline Vance. Aaliyah had known her since she was little. She was a very talented witch. There were at least four more that she had never seen before. Before she could ask any questions Christian was beside her, placing a hand on her head.

'Better get back upstairs Ali-bear. Keep an eye on your brother for a bit would you? Got some important stuff to go over with Albus about… well, never you mind.' He smiled down at her before hugging her into his side. Aaliyah was more than a little confused at this but realised her brother was now standing beside her, taking her hand. Kanika had darted by them and back into the room and Christian was about to do the same.

'Dad.' Ali stopped him holding onto her little brother's hand tightly. 'What's the Order?' Christian only supplied her with a look that said he disapproved of her listening in before pointing down the hall to where they should have been retreating. Ali knew when she was defeated and complied.

'Good acting back there Tuck.' She said trying her best to bring a better attitude to the situation. She didn't want to worry her little brother.

'Well I had to save your butt didn't I?' He glanced over to her with a smirk to gauge her reaction. Aaliyah was still too focused on what she'd just overheard to realise what he'd said. Tucker sighed knowing his opportunity was crushed.

'Make sure you don't say butt in front of mum.' She replied after a few moments with a nostalgic smile. 'Or Dad will get yelled at again.' She knew all too well exactly how Tucker would have learnt that word. Christian used to teach them to her when she was his age to infuriate Kanika. She was quite sure her first words weren't 'mama' or 'dada' like a normal babies' were. Nor were Tuckers.

The siblings made their way back up to Aaliyah's room and busied themselves with Snowball. Tucker had created an array of outfits for him with supplies lying around the house and Snowball looked grumpier than usual as he was subjected to the fashion show. It wasn't until an hour or so later than Kanika had come up to her room to check on them, in her work uniform. She kissed them both goodbye before disapparating for St Mungo's where she was the healer-in-charge of the fourth floor, dealing with spell damage.

Christian came in a while after to find out what his children were up to. Aaliyah took this as her chance for information. She knew her mother was iron clad when it came to secret keeping but her father on the other hand was decidedly lax with children vs. adults.

'Dad?' She asked as he laughed at Snowball with Tucker in his lap on the floor. 'Will you tell me what the order is?' He stiffened only slightly when Snowball made a get-away and Tucker leapt up to chase him.

'Ali-bear. I don't think your mother would approve.' He looked over to her with his kind, bright blue eyes. Ali just snorted.

'Don't even try that. Or I'll tell her about the time you lost me at work for three hours when I was eight.' She knew exactly how her father worked. Christian gaped.

'You _wouldn't_.' Ali gave him a look that said 'oh I would' and so he continued. 'Well, it's an organisation that Albus has formed as sort of a retaliation against you-know-who.'

'Isn't that dangerous? Are you and Mum both in it?' She had figured it out slightly but his words had confirmed it. Thinking of her parent's going up against what was looking like the darkest wizard of their age made her heart sink.

'Don't fret, your dear old Dad is worth more than he looks.' He supplied her with an award-winning grin and once again she had a flash back to none other than Sirius Black, who supplied her with that same grin the night she'd caught him jinxing two Ravenclaw girls' robes to fly above their heads. She shook her head wondering why on earth she had been reminded of that little git twice now when speaking to her father. 'As for your mother. I dare say she could probably end this war on her own with that attitude of hers.' They both just nodded vacantly in agreement.

'Oh your mother used to give me the roughest time at school.' Christian continued fondly. 'Used to get me into all kinds of trouble for being the little pest I was.'

'I can only imagine.' Aaliyah replied deadpan thinking of just how much of a handful her teenage father might have been. He was a handful now.

'I thought she despised me for the longest time. But I managed to charm her in the end.' He waved his light eyebrows at his daughter as she laughed. Tucker re-joined them with a protesting Snowball securely in his arms. She realised she was being silly worrying about her parents. If they had joined forces with Dumbledore to put up a fight against Voldemort then she could only be proud. They could both certainly take care of themselves. She watched as Christian whispered something to his son and tapped his wand to the fluffy white cat. Suddenly Snowball became an alarming share of pink. They laughed furiously as he caught a glimpse of his paw and nearly jumped five feet in the air from shock. The poor cat definitely preferred being at school with Aaliyah than being anywhere near the terrible two torturing him at present.

Aaliyah just relished in the happy moment of their laughter before Christian announce it was time for some Christmas pudding to which the siblings cheered.


	10. Chapter 10

'James! Sirius! Breakfast is ready boys!' Mrs Potter called up the stairs to the two who were currently situated in one of the guest bedrooms. James was flicking Sirius's ear with a smirk. Every time he did so the sleeping boy would lift his hand to swat whatever was disturbing his slumber away but James was far too fast with his quidditch honed reflexes. He moved on to his nose now as his mother made a second call up the stairs.

'Coming Mum!' James called back after flicking Sirius so hard he woke up and fell out of bed.

'What was that thud?' She called out and James sighed. Why did parents have to yell? If she wanted to know she could just walk up the bloody stairs and find out, he thought.

'Nothing Mum!' He called back once more watching as Sirius registered what was going on. He glared at James after his realization of the current situation was reached.

'Piss off James. Go toss off over Evans or something.' He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and pushed his hair out of his face.

'Padfoot I know your dear old mum used to make you keep your hair respectable, which is why you seem to be relishing in the fact that you can now let it grow, but do you think perhaps it might be time for a haircut?' James had a wonderful smile on his face as he sat perched on what used to be the one of the two spare beds, but was now happily the sleeping quarters of his best friend.

'Why don't _you_ get a haircut?' Sirius was _not_ a morning person, in any sense. James stared blankly at him and proceeded to slow clap as Sirius pulled himself back under the covers and curled up like a dog. James snorted out his nose and held his head high knowing what he was about to do could very well award him with an onslaught of jinxes. He stowed his glasses away in his pyjama pocket and yanked the blanket off of Sirius and jumped up on the bed bouncing around so furiously Sirius flew off.

He let loose a girly squeal when Sirius jumped up off the floor and dove towards him. He managed to avert his grasp and made for the door. Sirius following close behind. He slid down the staircases' banister and made a run for the kitchen where his mother was and where he would be provided sanctuary.

'No running in the house James!' She shouted as Sirius skidded in behind them. 'Oh good morning sweetie.' She scooped the figure of Sirius up into a hug and kissed his forehead diffusing the tension immediately. If James was the best at dissipating his tempers at school, it was nothing compared to the affect his mother had at what was now their mutual home.

'Morning Mrs Potter.' Sirius just smiled as she made an attempt at running her fingers through his hair. She was an elderly woman, her once red hair now turned white from time. Her hazel eyes smiling back at him as she hugged him once more. Sirius never could have imagined life could be like this. Waking up in the morning to a loving atmosphere and the smell of bacon and eggs waiting for you. Well he could, because that's what Hogwarts had always been. But since running away from home, the happy times never had to end and he sometimes felt like he was undeserving of such emotions.

'Sit, sit!' She ordered pointing to the chairs around the kitchen table. James had already pulled one up and was reaching for some bacon. Sirius took a seat with his usual morning temper being completely averted. It was rare for sure. James had figured out that there was literally only one person that could have this effect on him and it was his dear old mum. 'Where is your father? Probably busying himself in that garden again. It's not yet ten thirty and he's already rolling around in dirt.' She tutted loudly rolling her eyes and making her way over to where the pancakes were simmering.

Both James' parents had been retired for some time now. His father had come from a largely wealthy line of purebloods and so they decided once they finally received their miracle baby they would devote every second they could solely to him. Mrs Potter came around the table to put the freshly cooked pancakes in front of them and kissed her son's head running her fingers through his hair. James beamed up at her.

In Mrs Potter's eyes her son could do no wrong. She and her husband had devoted so much of their lives to work that when they finally decided to start a family they thought it might have been too late. They tried for years with nothing, and by the time they thought it was very nearly impossible James came along. The two were beside themselves with joy. They doted on James like he was blue of blood. But Mrs Potter also wasn't a young woman, and so she wasn't one to have the wool pulled over her eyes. She knew when James was out of line and punished him accordingly.

They brought their son up to do a very many things. They of course got him involved with sports from a young age, Mr Potter's doing. Mrs Potter made James practice things such as penmanship and linguistics among other things. They were delighted when he was sorted into Gryffindor and Mrs Potter even cried when James had written home about receiving his title of quidditch captain. Needless to say, James was very spoilt. They really couldn't help themselves most of the time. But they did try and bring him up to be respectful and kind.

As the two teens scoffed down their breakfasts Mr Potter dallied into the kitchen, removing his gardening gloves casually. He smiled at his wife with his dark brown eyes, covered by thick glasses, creasing heavily in the corners. 'It'll be cold with the time you're making.' Mrs Potter shook her head but it was quite apparent that she wasn't at all upset. Mr Potter ruffled up Sirius's hair as he took a seat beside him and there was a warm calm atmosphere all around as they ate.

'Sirius m'boy. How are all the lessons going? Still top of all your classes with James?' Mr Potter offered up some light breakfast small talk and Sirius grinned.

'I reckon I'm probably better than him in more than half of our classes actually. He spends _way_ too much time sulking after Evans.' This was clearly payback for earlier. James shot him the most deadly of glares and Sirius merely turned his attention back to his eggs.

'What's this now? A girl?' Mrs Potter's attention was peaked at this. Oh she wanted grandchildren more than she'd ever let on. If there was a chance she would get to meet them before she and her husband grew too old to hold them she would have been elated.

'Not just a girl. She's pretty as a _veela_. Isn't she James?' Sirius made the stupidest face he could muster. Puckering his lips together in a fish-like motion and fluttering his eye lashes while bringing a hand up to rest under his chin in a dreamy sense. All of the occupants of the table were now staring at the bespectacled boy. James looked at his father. He had certainly taken after him in the way of looks. His dad's hair was still black in most places and quite full on his head which he took great pride in knowing he would inherit. He looked back to his mother, whose eyes she had passed onto him. She looked almost expectant. He just raised his fork and took a bite of his sausage.

'Clearly this one's useless, tell me more Sirius.' Mrs Potter turned to Sirius. He laughed his bark-like laugh and James hurled a bit of egg at him.

'We need new dress robes mum! Sluggy's throwing another Christmas do and he want's Sirius and I to attend.' James retaliated.

'Oh, well we can pop into Diagon Alley this afternoon. I could do a bit of shopping myself, what about you dear?' Mr Potter nodded in agreement.

'No, no! Don't worry about me. You've both been far too kind as it is, I don't need any.' Sirius argued. He hated imposing on the Potter's. He didn't want to be any kind of trouble to them. He didn't even want to go to Slughorn's party.

'Don't be daft Sirius. We've got more than enough money to buy the both of you dress robes. Not to mention enough to take care of both James and yourself until you died of old age. And then some for your children too. I won't hear any more about you not wanting me buying you things. Give an old lady that at the very least. I'm not useful for much else.' With that she stood up from her spot at the table and went to collect up the dishes. She was stopped by her husband however as he told her to give it a rest and that the men of the house would clean up from here.

* * *

><p>As the Potter's plus Black made their way through the dreary streets of Diagon Alley, averting the pop-up stalls and their claims of dark magic protection, James and Sirius wrestled each other playfully behind James' parents. Mr Potter chuckled at their boisterous games while Mrs Potter seemed to be worrying over the state of everything around them. She fretted for her boys and put an end to their actions and hugged Sirius to herself and ordered James to walk with his father.<p>

They stopped outside Twilfitt and Tatting's, one of the few shops still trading, and Sirius made to protest but was only shoved inside by his surrogate mother. James laughed at him as they got inside and Sirius pushed him into nearby mannequin with such bored elegance it caused Mr Potter to snort at his son's expense. As they browsed the options James started pulling out robes meant for the older generation of wizards and held them up to his form seeking Sirius's approval.

'The green ones would do wonders for your figure.' Sirius nodded his approval and they started to talk to each other in a manner that resembled their headmaster while pulling more out and doing twirls and such for Mr Potter while Mrs Potter search in the younger section with honed determination. If there was one this Mrs Potter loved, it was shopping for James's clothes. And she was doubly excited to have two boys to now shop for.

After they had actually tried on the old fashioned robes and paraded them around the store, much to the store owners' abhorrence, they agreed on two vastly similar sets of smart looking black robes. The owner got to work immediately on making adjustments to the lengths so they fit the two boys perfectly. When they exited the shop Sirius lowered his head and thanked both Mr and Mrs Potter separately. He could have been a puppy with a tail between his legs but Mrs Potter didn't even have a chance to tell him off before James groaned loudly to their left.

'They've closed down quality quidditch supplies! I wanted to get a new broom compass. This is rubbish.' James pouted. 'This bloody war.'

'James Potter. I did not just hear you compare your lack of a new broom compass to the lost lives of some dear witches and wizards?' Mr Potter's voice was low and James knew he was in trouble. His father was a gentle old man but he didn't take kindly to his son being a brat. He rapped him upside the head with some of the supplies he'd purchased from Slug's and Jigger's Apothecary and James slumped down while Sirius sniggered at him. It wasn't long before they were heading towards Gringotts and Mr Potter went in to make a withdrawal while the other three waited for him in the foyer.

'Remind me again why we had to accept Slughorn's invitation this year?' Sirius asked staring down at the bag which held his new dress robes. 'I was sure you said 'let's check it out, just this once' last year. Did you not?' Slughorn was the head of Slytherin house and not their favourite teacher. He favoured students in a way that Sirius didn't agree with, and nor did James for that matter. He had always invited the two of them to the dinners he hosted and to the annual Christmas parties but the boys managed to make up quite a few excuses to get out of nearly all of them in their younger years.

Slughorn favoured Sirius a little more than James what with Sirius' family being who they were, but he and James excelled at a lot of their subjects and were highly revered among their peers. Slughorn never missed an opportunity to try to get them into his club of favourites once he realised who they both were. It wasn't until James had figured out Lily went along to a lot of his affairs that James had decided he and Sirius should start accepting said offers.

'Free food?' James shrugged. Sirius contemplated it for a moment then replied with an 'eh' shrugging along.

'We could always have fun with Snivelly when we're there.' Sirius contemplated and he saw a smile flash onto his best friends face.

'I suppose we could. Wouldn't want to give the old slime ball too much of a break. He might go soft on us.' James agreed.

'What are you two scheming about?' Mrs Potter asked with an appraising eyebrow quirked as she caught the end of their conversation. She didn't dismiss the looks on both their faces. She knew plotting when she saw it.

'Nothing!' They sang together and offered her the sweetest smiles they could muster. Even if they were planning something she couldn't help herself and pat both their shoulders lovingly as Mr Potter re-joined them.

'Open your hands.' She directed to both of them and Sirius sighed knowing what was coming. 'Shush you.' She swatted him and gave both the boys a large handful of galleons from the supply Mr Potter had taken out. 'I'm not having you two off at school with nothing to use at Hogsmeade. It's bad enough that you came of age without us being able to have some kind of dinner or event for you last month Sirius.' She nodded assertively ending the matter and ushered them out of the bank.

Sirius wasn't one to be overly obnoxious about his birthday. Although they shared a passion for trouble Sirius was strikingly different from James (who very much did make a fuss over his birthday) when it came down to a lot of things. Sirius had always been a very intelligent child, and so when he was old enough to contemplate thought matter on his own, he had begun to question his parents on many things. He was pampered as a very younger child as the heir of their household. His father Orion never sat down with him and his brother to play games with the boys, nor did his mother coddle them, but he was groomed to believe he had a much higher standing than other wizards. Regulus never much question it, but Sirius. Sirius began to question everything.

He used to question why he and his brother were ban from interacting with the muggle children around the neighbourhood of their London home. He used to question why their house elf wore tea towels and once tried to dress him but both Walburga and Kreacher hissed at that. He would question why his great, great aunt Isla was blasted off their family tapestry for marrying a muggle. He would question exactly what it was that made their family better than others and why being a pure-blood was so important. So many times his questions had been shot down or flat out refused an answer by both his mother and father that by the time he could read he took in just about anything he could about any other opinion on the wizarding world that wasn't 'because Sirius now stop asking such ridiculous questions.'

It didn't take long for Sirius to come to terms with just how wrong his family's values were. Values that he was raised with, values that were severely racist and essentially archaic. Values that placed him in a high regard in said family as their heir. He began to realise as he grew older that most of the 'love' bestowed by his parents onto him was merely because he was their first born. That he wasn't special, he was just lucky. Anyone could be born first. Anyone could be born a _Black_. He wasn't favoured because of any kind of abilities he had or anything of his own doing and he began to become aware just how conditional his parents 'affections' were.

What if he fell in love with a muggle? What if he was friends with a muggle-born? What if he didn't carry on the Black name and never had a son? What would that make him to his family then? Watching the interactions between James' parents and James were still so foreign to him. He very much enjoyed the wonderful kindness that they provided and it was a large part of the reason he had the courage to leave his childhood home behind. But he was still getting used to the idea that this was how parents _should _act to their children. Instead of pushing their supremacist ideologies onto a four year old, parents should provide them with unconditional love and support their choices.

As they made their way home from Diagon Alley, Sirius smiled happily as James hooked an arm around his neck and began discussing what they could do to infuriate Snape at the party. Sirius was kind of lost in his own mind as he agreed limply with everything James was saying. It had only been four months since he had dodged his mother's curses after he called her out on a particularly bad dinner when he had become fed up with the venomous comments directed at him. Ever since he had been placed in Gryffindor and brought shame to the _Nobel and Most Ancient House of Black_ he had been subjected to a very many things at the hands of mostly his blood-crazed elitist mother. His father wasn't much better and his brother, well, they had barely spoken since.

He kept this all to himself though, not wanting to bring his friends down. He was happy now. Or at least he was learning to be happy. He was trying his very best to accept that he was allowed to be happy outside of Hogwarts. When they were safely back at the Potter residence and Sirius and James had sounded like a small stampede making their way up the stairs and into James room, Sirius started fiddling idly with some of the strewn quidditch paraphernalia around the place. By the time they had eaten and Sirius had made his way back to his new quarters he had noticed just how much time he had spent dwelling on his past.

He tried to think of something other than his mother screeching names after him or his father announcing that he was not to return if he left. He found his mind drifting to school. School had always been a safe haven for him. It gave him freedom to think outside of his family's box. He played up at school because it made the other children laugh and he adored laughter. It was everything his family was not. Bright, warm, happy, and loving.

He thought of the pranks they'd pulled over the last term and smiled. He thought of little prefect Adam's finding them nearly every time. He thought of her nearly ripping her hair out trying to figure out what it was they had been up to while they were working on their map of the school and he let loose a laugh finding sleep coming to him much easier now.


	11. Chapter 11

Aaliyah was thankful that she had made plans with Dirk Cresswell about meeting up in Diagon Alley before she had left platform nine and three quarters as owls weren't really an option living half way across the world over the holidays. This was usually how she passed off never receiving letters from any friends to her parents. Dirk did live in London though, so the two had met up in the early evening and used the floo network to arrive at Hogsmeade where they were now getting one of the school carriages into Hogwarts together. Alone. Aaliyah was rather bored with his talk of, well, anything. Not wanting to be rude she smiled politely but never really added much to the conversation.

Dirk seemed to hesitate over his words and generally fidget a lot. Much like any of the boys in her year while they spoke to her, other than her cousin Nay. She never really understood it, but she missed a lot of social cues with her limp regard towards the opposite sex and general disdain to girls that gushed over them. She realised Dirk was asking her a question and quickly supplied him with a one worded answer. She had never been happier to see their caretaker as Hogwarts entrance came into view and he stood by the door on guard. Filch stared at them with his bottom lip unturned as they passed him to enter the castle.

When they arrived there was already a fair amount of people inside Slughorn's office to which he had transformed for the occasion as he usually did. There were a lot of spectacular greens and gold's accentuating the room as well as ambient lighting and all a manor of magical things floating about. Aaliyah favourite always being the presence of the fairies that hung around the lighting. Slughorn's prized guest this year seemed to be Barnabas Cuffe who had just taken over the editor-in-chief position at the Daily Prophet. Slughorn seemed to be deep in conversation with him and so the two new arrivals just made their way inside.

'Would you like a drink?' Dirk volunteered to which Aaliyah accepted and he wondered off to find a house elf. As she glanced around the room she recognised most of the students from previous Christmas parties. Snape was standing in a corner close to Slughorn with Regulus Black but they didn't seem to be talking to each other at all so much as keeping each other company. From the look of the younger, haughty looking boy, Regulus seemed to be holding himself back from something. Aaliyah followed to where his eyes were situated and saw his brother standing alone, gazing uninterestedly around at the room and its occupants. Ali found it curious to see Sirius alone.

'Oh thank god.' Aaliyah's attention was turned to Lily as she grabbed onto her arm and sighed. 'Do yourself a favour and never ask an older guy to accompany you to one of these things Adams. I'm lucky to have gotten away unscathed.' Ali just stared down slightly confused to where Lily was clutching onto her, hunched over.

'Isn't Potter younger than you?' Lily fixed her with a stern look at that remark.

'I did _not_ come with Potter.' She quickly fixed her brown dress and glanced around. 'Did you arrive with Dirk Cresswell?' Lily enquired scanning the room and finding him at the drinks station.

'Yeah. Merlin what a boring guy.' She shook her head as they both watched him for a moment. When Aaliyah found herself glancing back to where Sirius was she saw James joining him, stowing away his wand. He whispered something to Sirius and the two began laughing amongst themselves. She assumed when they weren't joined at the hip it would be because James was after Lily but instead it was James' second favourite thing occupying his time. Trouble.

'He's done something. I know it.' Ali sighed watching as James and Sirius let their laughter die and turned their attention over to the corner where Snape was now alone.

'Potter!' Lily yelled loud enough for both the boys to hear. 'Don't you dare.' She pointed an accusing finger towards him and James raised his hands in innocence. He gave her a wink and turned back to Sirius. 'So what's wrong with Cresswell?' Lily turned back to Aaliyah after glancing around the room to make sure her date wasn't nearby. The party was filling up quickly. There was fairly enjoyable music coming from one of the corners and everyone seemed to be at least enjoying themselves.

'All he does is stutter and stare at his fidgeting hands. Do all boys do that?' Aaliyah asked still keeping an eye on Dirk. She was socially inept but she wasn't cruel and didn't want him to stumble in on their conversation about his personality shortcomings.

Lily laughed. 'I suppose he's intimidated by you Adams. You're not the most amicable of girls. Had you not become a prefect I honestly doubt we would be speaking right now.' Aaliyah wasn't quite sure how to take Lily's words.

'But how am I intimidating?' She made a face. 'I don't find unpop-er, quiet students to be the intimidating sort?' Her question was left unanswered however when both Dirk Cresswell and Bertram Aubrey joined them. Bertram Aubrey was a burley seventh year Ravenclaw student that stood at least a head over Lily. Dirk handed Ali a drink and said a polite hello to Lily and Bertram.

'Bloody Potter.' These were the only words Bertram offered in reply. 'He bloody hexed me.' He sneezed once more from the remains of the _Steleus_ hex and Lily looked as if she were trying not to laugh. Bertram itched his nose then looked at Lily, Dirk, and Ali expectantly.

'Well? Aren't all three of you prefects? Can't you tell him off?' All three of the Gryffindor prefects stared at him for a moment. Lily just shrugged.

'It's not really our place over the holidays. Sorry.' This was of course entirely untrue. But Lily couldn't tell James off for something she didn't really find to be all that bad. Bertram was positively horrid. She would never have said yes to him usually but when he'd asked her to pair up with him to the party, James had been decidedly absent with whatever it was occupying the four boys before the holidays. She had agreed for no other reason besides feeling a little less like a commodity than usual. She had never regretted anything more. All Bertram seemed to be able to do was talk about himself.

'Should we have done something?' Dirk whispered to Aaliyah who shook her head taking a sip of the drink he had supplied her with.

'No. I think he might have deserved it.' The two usually quiet prefects watched as Bertram started up a conversation about himself again to Lily. She was too kind a girl to tell him off and so seemed to be trapped. For a while it gave Aaliyah and Dirk something to laugh about. As the night progressed Dirk seemed to relax a little with Aaliyah and they stood together most of the party looking around at their peers and amusing themselves by judging a few of the more flamboyantly dressed individuals. Lily tried to cling to the two of them the best she could but Bertram would try and lead her off from time to time.

Ali found herself looking over at Sirius a fair amount, to keep him in check of course. It would be just like he and James to turn a Christmas party into a disaster. She could see the appeal as to why Slughorn wanted to recruit the boys into his little club of sorts, they were both highly talented in a fair many areas. James was fantastic at quidditch and Sirius seemed to pass nearly all his classes with jaded ease. They were both purebloods, not that Slughorn seemed to fixate on the idea of blood purity, but pureblood families were always quite connected in the wizarding world. But the boys had always turned down the potions master's invitation, she thought he would have given up.

'Excuse me for a bit Cresswell?' Dirk nodded to Ali as she left his side and made her way over to where James and Sirius were whispering and not taking their eyes off Snape. 'Stop it.' She bit out to the boys as soon as she approached them and Sirius and James jumped a little.

'Why, stop what Adams? We're being very good tonight.' James smiled sweetly but Aaliyah's expression reminded unchanged.

'Stop plotting. I have spent four months chasing after the two of you. I know a plan forming when I see it now.' Aaliyah broke eye contact immediately with Sirius when she realised how intently his alluring grey eyes were fixed on her.

'You know I reckon she's getting almost as good as Mum at reading us Padfoot.' James was nodding in an almost approving way but Sirius grinned.

'She doesn't have to try, if she wanted to read me all she had to do was ask.' Aaliyah looked up to fix him with a glare but Sirius was supplying her with one of his cheesy grins. She felt herself falter as her father's face flashed into her head. When she didn't ark up at his comment Sirius's face morphed slightly into one of minor concern. 'You alright Adams?' He asked but James interrupted them stridently.

'Wait. Where's Evans? That blockhead's kidnapped her!' James was searching every corner he could with his eyes for Lily but she and Bertram seemed to be nowhere in sight. 'I'll bloody kill him!' James stormed off and Sirius wasn't far behind him.

'Happy Christmas Aaliyah.' She spoke to herself with a sigh and chased along behind the two imps, out of Slughorn's office, and into the corridors of the dungeons. They were awarded almost instantly with the sight of Lily and Bertram. Bertram had himself towering over Lily's much smaller form, up against a wall a little further down the corridor. She seemed to be protesting and James visibly puffed up.

Sirius grabbed him as Aaliyah joined them. 'Hey, just give it a minute mate. She's not some dainty dame. She can hold her own.' Sirius nodded his head back in their direction to where Lily had now pushed Bertram backwards.

'You are _filth_ Aubrey. Utter _filth_. Do you speak to your mother with that mouth? Get away from me!' She shouted and Bertram contested.

'What are you? Some kind of weirdo that doesn't like guys?' He was turning his face up at her and she rounded on him.

'If I preferred the company of women it would be a severe improvement on what is offering itself to me at present, I can tell you that much you stupid prat.' And when Bertram made to grab at her Lily raised her hand and slapped him so hard the sound reverberated down the corridor loudly enough to create an echo. James was beaming like a proud dad while Sirius just leant against the wall behind them with a knowing look. He knew Evans could hold her own after spending the past year beating James off with a stick. Not that the advances James made came anywhere close to the horrible display at hand, but Lily was a strong young woman despite her well known kindness.

'Stupid mudblood.' Bertram spat after her as he rubbed his face and the triumphant look on Lily's face died instantly. James's look of adoration faded and was replaced with something much more menacing and he turned to Aaliyah.

'Adams. Could you escort Evans back inside and get her a drink? I'd like to have a talk to Aubrey.' Sirius had abandoned his apathetic demeanour by the wall and was standing tall beside James now. Lily spotted them and her cheeks flushed red. She didn't make any attempt to say anything in rebuttal to Bertram's words but instead made her way over to Aaliyah.

'Boys… you know I can't just _let_ you-'

'Then help Evans.' Sirius looked sideways at her. 'You're a prefect. There's a student that needs some help with her nerves.' He winked and followed after James who was already making his way over to where Bertram was standing. Just this once she decided to overlook the rules. Ali _hated_ the word mudblood. It was disgusting. People could not help who they were born to, nor should it have been seen as a bad thing. Ali always revered the muggle-born children at school. They came by their magic all on their own. How amazing was that! She was born to two long standing wizard lines and therefore it was no surprise that she had magical blood. Being born to muggles and being magical was perfectly wonderful in her opinion.

She scooped Lily inside when she didn't say anything to her and led her over to where Dirk was standing with a Hufflepuff boy named Adrian. He was in Lily's year and had a camera in his hands. Dirk quickly picked up on the negative signals and offered up his help to which Ali asked him to get Lily something to drink.

'I'm fine Adams.' Lily offered with a smile.

'What a horrible little tosser.' Ali scrunched her nose up at the thought of what had just transpired.

'Adams!' Lily chastised at her use of words. Ali ignored her and looked around the room to see if Sirius and James had returned. Merlin only knew what they could have been up to. The only person that seemed to stand out to her was Regulus, who was standing by a Slytherin boy in the grade below them, Bartemius Crouch. Regulus was watching their group with the same seemingly bored expression his older brother usually adopted. She didn't pay much attention to them.

'We should probably go and check on them.' Lily spoke up as Dirk returned with a glass of punch for her.

'Actually. I think we're tied up here at the moment. Don't you Cresswell?' Ali asked innocently. Dirk gave her a light, polite smile and nodded.

'Look. Black over there looks shady as. I'm not moving from this spot for at least… three more minutes.' Aaliyah nodded a confirmation fixing her attention on Regulus who looked to be very far away from any kind of trouble. Dirk laughed a little and Lily seemed to warm up at that.

'This has to be the first time a Ravenclaw is turning my stomach more than a Slytherin.' Lily decided and took a sip of her punch. She blanched afterwards. 'My god, what is _in_ this?'

'I saw Black and Potter hovering around it an hour ago.' Adrian spoke up clutching his camera. 'I do believe they poured a fair amount of _something_ in there. To 'liven the party up' as I recall.' Adrian was a very timid guy it seemed. Lily and Aaliyah both sighed knowingly.

'Of course they did.' They said in perfect unison.

'Stay with her will you?' Ali requested and Dirk agreed. She thought she could probably ask him to cut himself and supply her with some of his own blood for a questionable ritual and he might have still agreed. Boys were funny. She left the small group they had made and decided it was time to intervene on whatever it was the boys were doing to Bertram. When she made it out into the corridor though they were nowhere in sight. It wasn't hard to figure out where they had gone however as she heard voices coming from over by the staircases.

One of the voices turned from something barely over talking level to all out shouting and Ali headed off in their direction hoping she was the only one around to hear it. The voice she realised belonged to Bertram was silenced before she had gotten any closer.

'Oh deary me Aubrey, did you happen to lose your voice, and your wand?' James' voice came into a clearer earshot.

'Pity. I've been told they're rather useful in these kinds of situations.' Sirius now.

'Oh whoops, did that jelly-leg jinx hit _you_?'

'Prongs old boy, you'll want to be more careful where you point that. So sorry Aubrey. Here.' She noticed a flash of light signalling something that was most certainly _not_ the counter-jinx. She rolled her eyes dawdling along.

'No, no Padfoot you silly old dog. That wasn't the counter-jinx. That was an instant scalping hex.'

'Oh, my. How very clumsy of me. Prongs you better give it a go.'

'Oh, I think I know. _Engorgio Skullus._' At this point now even Sirius had left his adopted manner of insolence behind and barked out a laugh.

'You two blighters are at it again!' Aaliyah made a run for it to reach the boys in time as she heard Filch's voice join in with the other two. The scene she discovered nearly made her falter in her 'prefect resolve' and she managed to reach them with just seconds to spare.

'Sirius Black! James Potter!' She called out and Filch came up short as he realised he wasn't the first one to find them. Sirius and James both turned their attention to her, hiding their wands behind their backs. Aaliyah didn't know how long she could hold in her laughter. Bertram looked hilarious. The boys had cast a silencing charm on him so he was trying to yell but there were no words coming from his mouth. All the hair was completely gone from his head. His head was at least twice the size that it should be and he seemed to be having a very hard time keeping it up. He was actually using his hands to balance it.

'Its fine Filch, I can handle this.' Aaliyah offered as he made an attempt to start yelling.

'These student's need to be punished! They're nothing but a nuisance!' He pointed to the two boys almost as if he were a child tattling to his mother.

'You're absolutely right Filch. Detention. Both of you.' She nodded to them confirming it. James and Sirius just shared a look between them.

'Double detention!' Filch argued.

'Yes of course! You're right again!' She humoured him. 'How could I have gone so easy? Yes, yes. Double detentions boys. Served with me. I have it on McGonagall's orders to do so.' She looked over at Filch. He seemed disappointed. He was a very sadistic old squib and his love of dishing out detentions did not go unnoticed. But after hearing the part about McGonagall he seemed to give in.

'Fine. Rotten little snotters. I'll be documenting this.' His usually unhappy face was no different now as he looked down at Bertram whose head had gotten the better of him while they had been speaking and was now in a very peculiar position. His face was against the floor while his body was still trying desperately to stand. Aaliyah made her way over to him and 'accidently' lost her footing, kicking him as she went.

'Oh. Sorry Aubrey. Could you, er, take Aubrey to the hospital wing please Filch? I'll deal with the boys.' She continued to make her way over to Sirius and James who both seemed very interested by her display. Filch watched her as she went and for added measure she grabbed both the boys by their ears and dragged them back towards the dungeons complaining loudly in her wake.

'Dammit Adams that _hurts!_' Sirius yelped as she twisted them down the stairs and out of earshot of Filch. James was laughing, not even bothering to care about his ear.

'Oh Adams. The accidental wallop to the head was golden.' She just smiled at him.

'I don't think I know what you're talking about Potter.' She acted aloof. 'Uh, you will have to serve those detentions. I thought you'd prefer them with me over Filch.' She offered. She wasn't usually so soft, but Lily was too nice a girl not to have someone standing up for her after such a nasty encounter.

'Is Evans okay?' James seemed to snap back out of his casual mirth.

'Merlin Potter, she's fine. Why don't you go and check, I left her with Cresswell.' She had barely finished her sentence before James was off, striding back into Slughorn's office. It wasn't until the last part of his black dress robes had disappeared around the doorframe that she realised she was alone with Sirius. She whipped around to face him and he was standing there rather relaxed, staring at her.

'What are you looking at Black?' She spat as his eyes scanned her up and down. He jumped at her voice and shook his head. 'Get in there. Go save Potter, Evans is probably going to hex him worse than Aubrey if she finds out what he did.' Sirius didn't speak a word. He just nodded with a sly smile and walked lazily in before her as she followed close behind.

* * *

><p>A.N; To the wonderful guest reviewing, I can't reply to them but thank you so very much it means the world to me, this chapter was for you. :)<p> 


	12. Chapter 12

Since the Christmas holidays it hadn't taken long for everyone to fall back into their old habits. They were now well into their new term, but the night of the Christmas party saw two changes in the student body. One being that Lily Evans seemed to be yelling at James Potter decidedly less than she usually did, although she seemed to be hexing him more when he would yell out to her through crowds of students. James seemed to only really ask her out in the more embarrassing of times, like when there were a lot of people around.

The second change was in Sirius Black who seemed to be getting caught for his misdeeds even more than usual. A lot of the time without his brother in crime which was the strangest adjustment of all. As the second term came and was already close to over, Aaliyah had had to supervise more than two dozen of Sirius's detentions herself. She had begun to realise why McGonagall had gotten fed up. Ali was drawing blanks as to what to make him even do anymore. She was found looking out for literally anything that could be used in a detention fashion more than she had her head in a book these days.

'I could make him write lines. McGonagall does that. Doesn't she? Do lines annoy you?' A fair amount of Ali's curls were sticking up at funny angles on her head and her ponytail was a bushy mess compared to its usual tamed status. Remus was surveying her from the other end of their table in the library cautiously. His new friend seemed to be losing the plot almost weekly these days.

'Uh, yes. They're tedious. Maybe you could make him write them in his own blood?' Remus laughed a little at his joke but when he looked at Ali she seemed to be contemplating it. 'Ali!' He reprimanded and she shook her head.

'You're right. That would probably only turn him on or something.' She bit her lip letting ink drop from her quill down onto her Arithmancy homework. Remus had been joining the younger prefect at her chosen table in the library for months now when he could spare the time. It wasn't all that often. He was probably in the hospital wing more. But he did try and she was almost always there. The first time he had done so was in an attempt to keep himself on track with classes before the full moon and when they had spoken she was so kind to him he wasn't sure how to respond.

He didn't want to admit it, but he had taken pity on her that day and offered her to join him at dinner. She had declined due to her seeming hatred of Sirius. A lot of the Gryffindor students at their school would moan and complain when Sirius and James depleted their house points regularly, but it was well known that they all still relished in their jokes. Sirius and James were pretty much the height of cool at Hogwarts. So when Aaliyah had outwardly claimed to detest Sirius, Remus' interest was piqued.

He thought maybe she might have had a crush on him, and was playing it down with a façade of malice. But if the past few months was a testament to her feelings she most certainly would have rather kicked him up the behind rather than snog him. But as Remus had come to understand from their scattered times together Ali wasn't really like other students. She seemed to have a rolling repute with their teachers, who all rather liked her. But she was quite blank when it came to most of their peers. Her lack of friends was what drove Remus to actively begin seeking her out and spending time with her. Had he not been placed in a dorm with James, Sirius and Peter he might very well have been the same.

Remus made a point to distance himself from anyone that weren't Sirius, James and Peter as a rule. Back when the boys had collectively figured out his secret towards the end of their first year he was, for lack of a better word, shocked at their reaction. _Wicked mate._ Were James's exact words. Sirius seemed to levitate towards him in what he supposed was a middle finger to his parents, and Peter was just desperate to be a part at that point. He was quite sure he had found the only three boys that would have accepted him, and he was thankful for them every day since.

Aaliyah might not have been a monster in the same sense as him, but she was certainly a tyrant when it came to school rules. She'd even told him off a handful of times for the seriously minor offences he'd been caught for with his friends lately. Like laughing too much in class at what James and Sirius were writing in the notes they were passing back and forth. Something he thought didn't really merit a detention, but served it all the same. Ali had told him off for it and he just smiled and took the lecture without complaint. He always felt when a lecture came his way, he deserved it. Even when he probably didn't. It was in his nature to feel as if anything wrong was his fault.

He didn't want to admit it, but he seemed to be taking pity on the young girl still. Not that she wasn't good company, usually they sat in a sweet silence together and worked on homework. He had seen a rise in his grades with her help, which was something he didn't feel worthy of. Here he was feeling sorry for her and she was nice enough to help him with his papers and practice spells that were beyond her by a year. He would have felt a lot worse if she didn't seem to enjoy it so much. He was sure if she had been a boy she would most certainly have gotten a hard on for school work. He found her quite fascinating at times.

'You know when I caught him yesterday, he used a jinx on a second year _in front of my face._ What the _hell_ Remus? Does he literally have no regard for the school rules?' She was trying to wipe up an ink spot now from the desk. Her hair was coming undone and her long curls falling all around her. She was a pretty girl. If she didn't constantly have a sour look on her face he thought she probably would have the same kind of following Sirius had. But she was such a do-gooder she seemed to avert the masses.

'Just like that. Sees me coming down the bloody corridor and _bam_ "oh excuse me, I'm Sirius Snotnose Black. I have a reputation to uphold. Please submit yourself for torture._"_ I should ask McGonagall for permission to hex him right back.' Remus couldn't bring himself to speak ill of his friends and so he just nodded as she spoke, allowing her to vent.

'How is he so bloody fabulous at everything he does? "I pay attention in class." What a bragger.' She seemed to be muttering to herself now more than to him. 'I hope he fails his NEWTS and gets put back a year. Poxy little bas- oh, merlin **no**. Then I'd have to spend classes with him- **Remus go and help him study! He cannot fail!**' She stood up from her place at the desk knocking her chair over in the process and Madam Pince was there in no time flat hissing at the two and flipping her feather duster in their faces.

'I'm so sorry Irma. Won't happen again.' As soon as the young librarian had vanished Remus started laughing at Ali and her cheeks flushed pink from embarrassment. She started muttering something about upsetting her oldest friend at the school in what was probably meant in a joking fashion but Remus felt a pang of guilt for her and went quiet.

'Ah, anyway. I have to go Remus. I have to supervise a detention for Mulciber, Wilkes and Avery.' The look on her face spoke more than any amount of words could. Remus had come to learn that Ali seemed to be able to convey a lot with just looks. Her face seemed to rest in an upturned lazy disdainful manner, but when she abandon her usual monotonous look, her expressions spoke legions.

'What did they do?' He enquired attentively. Not that it would have taken long to guess. They were among some of the most cringe worthy students at Hogwarts. Mulciber and Avery had been caught more than once practicing variations of dark magic on students. It was a wonder they were still here at all.

'Nothing major. I just caught them out past curfew. They were sulking around last Saturday night when I was doing your patrol for you.' She sighed. 'To think if you're immune system was better it would be you trapped with them.'

'For once I have to say I'm actually happy to have been sick.' He grinned. 'What do you think they were doing all out of bed that late together?'

'I don't know. It was the Saturday just gone. People at this school seem to entertain the ideas of social lives. I don't really get it, but they do.' She was furrowing her brows as she packed up her things. To Ali it would have seemed like she had simply busted some students out of bed. But that night was a full moon. The night Remus was taken down to the whomping willow by their matron. A thought struck him.

'Snape wasn't with them?' It was becoming more and more clear to Remus that Snape seemed to be targeting him.

'Not that I saw. But I mean he's never very far from them these days now that Evans gave him the boot. I probably should have had a better look around.' Remus realised there wasn't really a whole lot keeping him in the library besides Ali and so began packing up with her, offering to walk her to the dungeons where she would be supervising the boys as they scrubbed out cauldrons.

As they were exiting the library they were met with a familiar face. '_Hullo_.' Sirius sung as he joined the two of them. 'Fancy meeting you two here. Like, honestly, what are the chances?'

'Yes. Very strange phenomenon indeed.' Remus eyed his friend off but shared a smirk with him all the same. They had successfully managed to pull off creating their map in February last month and Sirius had been hoarding it like a proud father ever since. They thought they had met their match in a plan too big for even their misdoings but with Remus's book smarts, James and Sirius's natural talents, and Peter bringing them snacks, it took the four of them a little over three months to complete. Once it was done it was far better than any of them could have imagined.

Remus's wary look towards Sirius wasn't for his obvious personal joke though. Since he had begun looking after Aaliyah in his spare moments, he had noticed Sirius taking a more active approach towards her also. He riled her up so easily and he seemed to bathe in the emotions he elicited from her. Mostly she just yelled at him and he would laugh. Remus turned a blind eye to almost every little thing his friends did because they accepted him. The situation at present wasn't any different, but he felt an almost brotherly kind of protectiveness come out when Sirius teased her too much.

Remus heard a strange noise from his right side and when he turned to Ali she seemed to be grinding her teeth together in silence, nostrils flared, face deadpan.

'What were you two kids up to?' As Sirius spoke he casually dropped back from where they were walking to pull up between to two and wrapped his arms around both of their shoulders. 'Reading up on how to become less of a nerd? You seem to still have a ways to go guys. Sorry.' He finished and before Remus could protest for Sirius's sake, Ali spoke up.

'Black have you been studying?' She asked, pushing his arm off of her probably more viciously than was necessary.

'Uh, no. I'm not as committed to spending all of my free time in the library as some.' He was pushing her buttons. He honestly didn't need to try to do it, but he was. Remus would have been upset but… it was slightly entertaining. He hated to admit it, but she was funny when she was mad. Her upper lip would twitch and her eyes would relax into a state that could have been bottled and sold in one of the pop-up stalls in Diagon Alley to repel dark magic. He knew he should have spoken up and told Sirius off but he could never bring himself to do so.

'Go and STUDY!' She turned on the spot to yell this at him and then flicked back around her hair smacking him in the face. 'If you fail I'll make it my personal mission to make sure you _live _in detention. Remus go with him. The stupid Slytherin trio are child's play compared to you four.' And with that she was off, down the stairs and out of sight before either of them could form a rebuttal.

Remus just looked at Sirius and shook his head. Sirius was about to complain about the look he was receiving but seemed to remember why he had come down to find Remus in the first place.

'Anyway. Come on, Pete is waiting for us.' With his arms still around his friends shoulder he led Remus off in the direction Ali had just disappeared to. Remus was starting to wonder what kind of trouble he was about to get himself into as they rounded the first floor corridor and Peter came into view. But they came to an abrupt stop when they saw none other than Snape standing with him.

'Ah, n-no.' Peter was shaking his head at Snape who was coming into his personal space like it was his birth right. Peter, who had progressed so far since his first year when all he could do was stutter and laugh in the boys' presence, was stuttering again. Why? Remus saw Sirius digging in his robes for his wand and Remus, this time, thought it best to do the same.

'Oy!' Sirius bellowed and Snape retracted from their friend like a spider when its web was touched. He wheeled around to defend himself but Sirius had already flicked his wand and the books in Snape's bag all came roaring to life and advanced on him. Peter ran from the scene and Sirius bent over laughing as Snape fell over backwards due to the assailing books.

'Are you alright?' Remus asked Peter as he join the two. Peter just nodded and Remus made quick work of the counter-jinx as all Snape's book fell limp around him.

'Ah Moony! You're no fun anymore.' Sirius watched as Snape stood up in a flurry of robes and greasy hair swinging around him.

'You- You-' Snape started looking for his wand, he seemed to have dropped it in the heat of the moment as the books attacked.

'I? I? What Snivelly? I made you soil yourself? I am everything you hope to be? Well sorry but the feeling is far from mutual.' Sirius had his wand clutched and ready as he took a step in front of Remus and Peter, blocking them from Snape's view.

'You're insufferable! Do you know what awaits blood traitors like you Black?' He spat the word so venomously trying and failing to make himself taller once his wand was safely in his hand again. 'The only thing that will be greeting you after you graduate is a flash of green light. The Dark Lord will make quick work of _you_ especially!'

'Snivelly I reckon your crush on Voldemort is getting out of hand. Does he know you sent him flowers on Valentine's Day again this year?' Remus only winced at the mention of the name as Sirius spoke it. Snape and Peter both made verbal complaints.

'Your brother's an idiot to think anything of you.' As soon as the words had left Snape's mouth he narrowly missed a jet a red light.

'What did you say about my brother?!' Sirius shouted after him but Snape just scurried off to safety as Remus grabbed hold of Sirius.

'Hey, let it go. He's not worth it.' Remus appeased. Sirius was such a fiercely loyal creature and Snape, who had been he and James' rival for six years now, knew it. He knew how to infuriate Sirius and he played it to his benefit whenever possible.

'My brother might be an idiot, but he's a far-sight better than that greasy git.' Sirius spat fixing his robes up and pushing Remus off of him. 'What was he saying to you Wormtail?' Peter squeaked in fright at Sirius's abrupt turn of attention on him.

'Ah, n-nothing really. He was asking about-' He looked at Remus and Remus sighed. He was asking Peter about himself again. Ever since last year when James had been torturing Snape to entertain Sirius after one of their exams, Snape had taken a much more active approach to wanting to get the boys in trouble. James and Sirius were a much harder pair to get to, as they didn't think twice when it came to hexing him. He and Peter on the other hand were much easier targets. Remus seemed to be coping the brunt of it however as Peter was usually close by to either Sirius or James. Remus was the weak link. Remus was always the weak link.

'Sorry.' He turned his attention to the floor where he felt it belonged. Sirius just smacked his back hard enough that he flung forwards a few steps.

'Don't be a martyr Moony. This just gives us a reason to hex him in the corridors.' When he looked up to the two Sirius was grinning at him and Peter was looking between Sirius and himself, smiling timidly.

'We _were_ going to put dungbombs in the transfiguration classroom for McGonagall's first year class tomorrow.' Peter hitched his bag up on his shoulder indicating they were inside. Remus felt a voice inside him that sounded strikingly alike to Ali's protest. He was a prefect, chosen by McGonagall herself! He really shouldn't. But looking at the two friends before him, the two friends who had just stuck up for him. One who had be cornered because of him. One that readily came to his aid any time he needed it. Two boys that _knew_ he was a monster, but accepted him all the same. How could he deny them?

'Yeah, alright. I suppose I could stand guard while you two slipped inside.' He allowed himself to smile and chuckle at the round of applause the boys ignited into. They grabbed him and made their way to the classroom in question. Once the bombs were planted expertly around the room they made their way out but the three of them halted as Peeves floated by, a wicked smile on his face.

'Looney loopy Lupin, disgracing the preffie name. What would dear old Gonnie have to say about this?' He was grinning widely floating back and forth.

'Peeves we were going to ask if you'd do us the honour of setting them off in the morning.' Sirius quipped. He and James seemed to be the only ones that could tame the poltergeist into any other frame of mind than simply torturing the students without relent. Peeves' interest was piqued at this and he gave Sirius a grand look of approval.

'Well, why didn't you say so bitty witty Black? If it's an instigator for mischief you need, Peeves is at your service!' His words were fleeting though as his departure saw him make a point of dousing an ink pot from Peter's bag over both Remus and Peter's heads, cackling as he zoomed away. Sirius couldn't help the look he gave the boys as they screeched when the ink hit them and began trailing down the hair, faces and dripped onto their robes.

'Why did you miss it?' Peter accused, pointing a finger at Sirius. Sirius just shrugged watching as Remus dug in his pockets for his wand.

'Come here Wormtail.' Remus spoke, using the scouring charm on him first. It wasn't something Remus actively thought about, nor was it that he thought Peter in particular deserved to come before himself in any way. It was that Remus, a boy that had a childhood filled with monthly transitions into a monster that wracked his parents with shame and fear, believed that _everyone_ came before himself. As he made quick work of Peter and then himself and the boys straightened up.

'Come on, let's go see how Prongs is doing with running a quidditch team. I'm sure we can make fun of him somehow.' There was a glint in Sirius's grey eyes as he took off and Peter was close behind him. Remus just readjusted his bag on his shoulder and followed along happily. As they made their way out of the castle and onto the grounds they passed Mary Macdonald and Marlene McKinnon. Remus felt his cheeks heat up very slightly when he caught Marlene's eyes.

She smiled at him like she always did. Mary, Marlene and Lily were always quite nice to him. But more recently he felt a certain pull towards the outspoken blonde. They came and went just as quickly and Remus was rewarded with a hard elbow in his ribs.

'Bet you're an absolute wolf in the sack Moony, why don't you give it a go?' Sirius goaded and Peter was snickering beside them.

'Shut up Padfoot.' Remus looked down and continued on to the quidditch pitch. If there was one thing Remus could not allow himself, it was to willingly dump his problems on someone else. To think of actually being in any kind of a relationship with anyone, knowing what he was, was unfathomable. Or at least, to think anyone would _want_ to be in a relationship with him was unfathomable. No girl in their right mind would want him. He didn't even bother with the notion.

* * *

><p>AN; I'm just going to let you know that I could probably write a five thousand word thesis on the reasons why I believe 'The Prince's Tale' chapter is possibly the worst chapter for continuity. The fact that James saving Snape supposedly came <em>before <em>the lake scene is completely ludicrous to me. It's one of the very few things in the HP canon world that makes me rant. (I still worship Jo, though.) And so I will not be following it in this fic, and will be changing canon things to fit around it. Just a heads up. I wont go into the reasons any further lest I be here for days.


	13. Chapter 13

'Replacing _rare_ ingredients in the potions storerooms with Zonko's products. Telling first years that there were going to be _zombies_ in the next care of magical creature's class. Commissioning Peeve's to follow Filch around with a whistle so students knew where he was. Changing _all_ the soaps in the bathrooms to frog spawn. Transfiguring _three_ ancient suits of armour into naked sculptures. Letting lose a box of Cornish Pixies in Greenhouse Three. I don't even want to know where you got those. _Somehow_ managing to make it seem as if a _dragon_ was descending on the great hall through the ceiling at dinner. Getting caught out of bed no less than _three_ times. Rabastan Lestrange still cannot grow parts of his hair back. Barty Crouch is asking you be expelled for hanging him upside down for thirty minutes before anyone found him. Am I missing anything!?' Ali had lost count on her fingers by this point as Sirius sat, sorting through the potions ingredients he had meddled with in the dungeon class room.

He smirked over at her, 'Barricading the astronomy tower so none of the students could get in on Wednesday night.'

'That was you!?' She stood up instantly from where she had been lazily sitting on a desk.

'Oh. Certainly not.' He acted very serious now, pulling some ingredients up to his face casually and deciding whether or not they were salvageable.

'_Breathe Ali_.' She took a deep breath. 'I didn't hear that. I don't have to give him a detention if I didn't hear it.' She spoke quietly to herself, rubbing her temples and turning her face up to the celling with her eyes shut tight. This was the second detention she had to supervise _this week_ for Sirius. He seemed to think it most amusing. Ali was wondering why the teachers put up with him at all?

'I just really enjoy our time together Adams.' Sirius breathed out fluidly, chucking some lacewing fly aside and relabelling the newt's eyeballs.

'I want to _avada kedavra_ myself.' Ali sighed sitting back on her desk and surveying Sirius to make sure he was doing as he was supposed to. Although, he always seemed to be most compliant during their detentions together.

'Don't say such things Adams. How would I get any entertainment around here without you to yell at me?' Sirius asked looking over at the tired prefect. Her face was deadpan and devoid of any kind of emotion. Even the usual scowl that seemed to be second nature in his presence.

'Maybe you could torture someone _else_ for a change?' She whined, her face turning even limper and her head falling towards her shoulder pathetically. Even though it was a Saturday morning she had on her school uniform to supervise the detention. Sirius had opted for a more casual attire, but had on a Gryffindor scarf as today was their match against Hufflepuff.

'Nah. You're much more interesting.'

'I'm saddened by that opinion more than you know.' She produced in a monotone and lay back on the desk. She didn't even have her books with her. She could barely concentrate on anything in these detentions. Between her, what seemed to be obsession with admiring Sirius's body, something she would have stopped if she could. And him trying to hold lazy conversations with her through the work she had him undertake, books were apparently out of her reach.

Sirius laughed at her lightly. She made no reaction to it, trying to pretend she was sleeping now. Maybe that would thwart him from speaking to her?

'So Adams,' Ali sighed. Clearly she was mistaken. 'Are you coming to the match? Going to support your team?'

'_You_ won't be getting to the match the way you're going Black.' She spat neither opening her eyes nor sitting up. At least she felt somewhat relaxed right now. The desk was hard, but maybe it was doing her back some good?

'I can't miss the match Adam's! I'm commentating!' Sirius whined. This made Ali smile. Anything that seemed to annoy him in _any _way made her smile.

'Well. I suppose they'll have to get Stebbin's to do it.'

'Stebbin's is _rubbish_. I, on the other hand, am a charismatic god of narration. I shall be scouted and asked to speak at the world cup, just you wait.'

'Oh shut up Black. All you do is make the crowd laugh at your unfailing stupidity.' Ali was picking out crud from under her nails now and trying her very best not to peer over at Sirius.

'So you _have_ been to a game then?'

_Damn it. Defeated!_ Ali had to sweep that under the rug before he started making insinuations towards the fact that the only reason she ever made it down to a game was to hear _him_ commentate it. Oh it was such a Sirius Black thing to say.

'Why would I bother with quidditch Black? I don't play it. I don't have friends that play it. I have no interest in it at all. You know _nothing_.' Her eyes veered away from her nails now as her head turned slightly to gain a glimpse of him. He wasn't looking at her, he was very determined to relabel all the ingredients now. Her facial expression remained unchanged as she watched him scribble on one jar and empty another, and he didn't even make a face at having to handle the frog's livers.

'You don't have friends at all.' He rolled his eyes sliding another jar aside and Ali frowned turning away from him now. She didn't want to admit that that may have hurt a little more than she would have liked.

'So Adams-' Sirius started again.

'No.'

'But I-'

'No.'

'You haven't even-'

'Oh, well then, definitely not.' She smiled when he huffed and clanged a jar down.

After a few minutes Sirius tried again.

'So, how about those dungbombs Peeves set off hey? What a _scallywa_-' before he could finish the word Ali had her wand out and muttered _silencio_ and Sirius's voice was lost. He made an uproar with his hands but it was all lost as Ali had shut her eyes and relaxed on the desk again.

'If I didn't hear it, you can't get a detention from it.' She had a sneaking suspicion that the dungbombs let off in the first years classroom that week wasn't peeves' doing alone. But she was at the end of her tether with Black. One more bloody detention and she was afraid what she might have done to him. He was getting far too casual with her as it was.

She swore at herself twice over the next hour when she realised she was staring. Sirius had plonked himself down on top of a desk also and was sorting things out with his back to her. She had a sneaking suspicion he would have been muttering if he could have been. What a glorious charm _silencio _was. She had to thank Professor Flitwick for teaching them that this year. When he huffed a breath out Ali's eyes settled on the sixth years back. They lingered far too long on the dip just above his backside and she smacked herself in the forehead.

_You can't be a hypocrite Ali. You make _fun_ of girls for staring at this loser. You're not supposed to stare at him. What's wrong with you? Control yourself!_ She argued inwardly. She made a point to examine a particularly interesting stone in the roof overhead from where she was laying. She shut her eyes and frown for a moment wondering if she _should _go to the match today? Sirius had seemed to pick up the pace. They might have made it. Merlin almighty, certainly not together, but maybe she could find a place with Irma like she had a few times before? Misha's friends weren't her biggest fans and Dirk had gotten a little odd since they went to the Christmas Party together so that ruled Nay out also. Irma was always nice, quiet company.

She felt a hand settle on her knee and she jolted up with so much force she collided head first with Sirius who had simply been trying to get her attention.

'Mother of all things magical, _what were you thinking Black_?!' She shouted rubbing her head furiously as it pounded, filling with blood. When she opened her eyes her vision blurred for a moment before Sirius came into focus. He had a pathetically distressed look on and was rubbing his forehead in the same vigorous fashion.

'It's a pity I'm so good at charms work.' She smiled still rubbing her head. 'I would have enjoyed watching you puff up had I got that silencing charm wrong.' Sirius glared at her as she flicked the counter charm at him.

'Can I _please_ go now? The games due to start any minute!'

'Alright, fine. Dismissed.' Ali rolled her eyes and pulled herself off the table. Sirius winked at her and dashed from the room before she could yell at him for it. Once he was gone she realised she was smiling slightly and smacked herself hard in the head for it. She didn't have anything with her to collect besides her wand so she made her way out of the class room and up out of the dungeons absentmindedly.

When she was standing at the double doors that led out to the grounds she was weighing up her options. Once she decided some time with Irma might be nice and shrugged and made her way outside. As she came up to the quidditch pitch the screams and roars of approval were deafening. The game had only just started. She watched jadedly from her position on the ground as the red and yellow dots zoomed around miles above. She had never been overly interested in sports. She shrugged and made her way over to the teacher's tower to climb.

Once she was up among the teachers, there weren't any real questions to her appearance. She was quite well liked by all the staff. She saw Irma sitting alone as she usually was, moody thing that she could be, and took up a seat beside her. She gained a rare smile and a nod from the librarian and they turned their attention back to the pitch.

'That would be ten points for the heroes of the school! The courageous lions among men!' She heard Sirius's voice boom around the stadium and she was about ready to kick herself for her stupidity. Of _course_ the commentator was in the staff's box. She saw McGonagall smack him with a rolled up tally sheet for his obvious side taking.

'Apologies Minnie. Go Huff'n'stuff, you guys are great also.' Ali noted that no one besides those in the staff's seating would have heard that as he had pulled the speaker very far from his whispering mouth. 'I suppose.' He added and received another whack.

'And the quaffle is re-taken by none other than James Potter! And I must say, what a handsome devil he is. You should see him out of the uniform, ladies, single file please.' The crowd was laughing but McGonagall was giving him a good talking too. Ali even found a smile on her own lips at that. She was human, and even though quidditch was most witches and wizards favourite past time and that's what they came for, everyone seemed to enjoy Sirius's ridiculous commentating.

'He goes in for the kill, and-' he froze as the entire stadium watched as James hurtled toward the opposing hoops and flogged the quaffle so hard it was a wonder it didn't knock the Hufflepuff keeper clean off his broom. '-He SCORES! Another ten points for the chivalrous lions! Sorry, Gryffindor, where the brave of heart dwell. Sorry. Just Gryffindor.' Sirius was wincing as McGonagall held up her rolled up tally menacingly.

'Number five is really pelting along up there, possession of the quaffle turns to the yellow team.' This was something Sirius liked to do. The only person he would use the name of was James. The rest were all just colours and numbers. Ali raised a brow wondering why they never revoked the job from him. If he was in detention when a match was on, Stebbin's would take over, but he didn't cause nearly as much of an uproar with his carefully selected words.

'Yellow team captain is hurtling towards red's keeper. He's zooming along like a dung Beatle, would you look at him go! He shoots and- safe! Gryffindor is too good! Save of a lifetime by number two! You go number two! Quaffle's possession turns back over to Gryffindor, number five passes to James, smart _move_ number five. Gryffindor's esteemed captain takes the pitch by storm, look at him go, soaring like a hippogriff, regal as they come. Don't let that fool you though, complete dork out of the uniform. Take his glasses away and he'd trip over his own foot.'

'Mister **Black**!' McGonagall chastised.

'He SCORES! Another ten points to Gryffindor! At this rate we might not even need to snitch to secure a win. But we believe in you six! You can find it!' He received another favouritism smack and after that got a little more on track with his calls. The previous Gryffindor match that was back in November saw the team win over Slytherin two hundred and forty to one hundred. If they won this game also they could very well have gotten the quidditch cup.

As hours ticked by, Sirius's loud humour-induced commentating kept the crowd laughing but Ali's mind trailed off. She spoke to Irma from time to time about books and asked about any she should have read from among the librarian's favourites. Irma suggested her three that had not yet come into her grasp which gave her a happy swirling feelings. Books were like crack to Ali.

There were a few close calls. One sub had to be called in for the Gryffindor chaser 'number one' as Sirius had so affectionately named her. Poor girl took a bludger straight to the head. She would have been out for days. It didn't stop the team from scoring however as Gryffindor were leading one hundred and fifty to ninety. Hufflepuff were giving them a run for their money, and Sirius had even given them a few compliments for their efforts. Which he told them was the highest honour.

By the time Ali had gotten into a most comfortable position and was once again picking at her fingernails trying to make them as cleanly and nice as possible she glanced over at where Sirius sat beside McGonagall and saw his attention following the chaser soaring by their box and as his head turned, he caught sight of her staring. She looked away faster than she thought was possible and started talking to Irma about all the things she had learnt on the properties of moonstones thanks to the helpful library books. This pleased the librarian greatly.

Sirius' loud voice around the stadium told her he was no longer looking at her and she chose this time to quickly look back again. What was he doing looking over at her? Stupid moron's attention should have been on the game, Ali thought. She held her nose high in the air with her negative opinions and wondered why she was still at the game at all? She never really came down to them. She used the time in the castle to revel in the freedom of having nearly _no_ students around. It was some of her favourite times of the school year.

There was a loud clang signifying another point to Hufflepuff. Ali huffed.

'Quidditch is boring.' She complained.

'Tell me about it.' Irma agreed.

'Why are we even here?'

'You tell me kid. I get a fair amount of enjoyment out of watching them get cobbled by bludgers. Serves them right for disrespecting my books.' Ali felt a small giggle surface at Irma's reply and she felt sorry for all the people that got on the Librarian's wrong side. They all missed her dry humour. Most people barely heard her speak.

The two book enthusiasts were about ready to call it quits as the game seemed to be a never ending one and darkness was descending around the ground when Sirius shouted out that both the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff seekers had seemed to have caught sight of the snitch.

'They've seen it! The snitch is in sight! Red number six dives in pursuit of the snitch with yellow number two not far behind! Gryffindor are still in possession of the quaffle, they won't let the commotion of the snitch stop them from scoring, and another ten points to Gryffindor! Red three and four have sent bludgers straight for the Hufflepuff seeker and OUCH! Connected! Bad luck there, she's fallen off her broom! Will their sub get on the pitch in time? Hufflepuff supporters are coming to a nail biting end.'

'Hufflepuff are now in possession of the quaffle! But the Gryffindor seeker is racing behind what must be the golden snitch. Can't for the life of me see it. Probably why I'm not on the team. But you get that.'

'Black!'

'Right! And Hufflepuff score! Ten points for the yellow guys. Good job mates! You put up a good fight. Useless but-'

'Black!'

'It looks like, yes? YES! She's caught it! GRYFFINDOR SEEKER HAS SECURED THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WIN! Three hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty! SMASHED! Sorry chaps but wow WHAT A WIN!' Cheers were heard all around the stadium and even Irma and Ali had joined the rest of the staff box in standing up and clapping. Dumbledore was waving a small red flag back and forth with an airy smile. McGonagall had forgotten all about Sirius and was whooping and clapping loudly.

Ali watched as the Gryffindor team all touched down on the ground and ran over to the tiny seeker and lifted her up high cheering loudly. James was belting out a chorus of something they couldn't hear and Sirius was making some last minute announcements about where this placed all the houses. Ali's stomach sank now that the win had sunk in.

'Oh, no!' She turned to the librarian.

'What?' Irma raised one of her thin brows.

'You know what this means? Party in the Gryffindor common room.' She made a very sarcastic whooping motion with a singular finger as her face died.

'I could keep the library open a little later tonight if you'd like?' She suggested and Ali sighed in relief.

'Oh thank _merlin_.' Irma gave her a very rare laugh and they gave a few more polite claps before being the first ones to disappear together back to the school and avoid the masses.


	14. Chapter 14

It was late afternoon and the boys were bored of their ancient runes class already. It had only begun ten minutes ago, but they hated Tuesday afternoons. Muggle studies, followed by ancient runes. The worst. James, Sirius and Peter all took muggle studies together because James had decided he needed to be better versed in all things muggle related for when he started dating Lily. Sirius liked the idea of understanding muggles better for a less girl related reasons and Peter just followed their lead. Remus's mother being a muggle saw him decline the offer of joining them. Ancient runes was Remus's idea. The three other boys all liked to remind him of this fact when they got particularly annoying homework from Professor Babbling.

Sirius was rocking back on his chair, mouth agape, staring up into nothing. Peter was beside him picking his nose absentmindedly. Remus was scrawling out notes next to Peter as he actually enjoyed this class. James was beside Remus just staring straight ahead at the board where Professor Babbling was explaining types of ancient Egyptian runes and how they could be linked back to a lot of magical heritage. Or at least that's what it seemed like he was staring at. To the untrained eye. He was actually glancing over at Lily from time to time where she was taking notes with Mary two rows down to their right. Just as his hazel eyes darted back to her behind his glasses once again, she peered over her shoulder very covertly and glanced at him. Their eyes caught for the briefest second before James quickly averted his and refocused them on a very interesting bug flying above them.

His heart's rhythm had picked up from the eye contact. He felt it thud in his chest for a few seconds before he calmed down. He was _such_ an idiot. How could he get this worked up over a _girl_? He told himself off almost daily when this happened but he just couldn't control it. When he was younger he tried and tried to ignore it. He would tell his friends they were stupid when they teased him. _You like Evans! Just admit it James!_ Sirius used to laugh at him every time he would walk into a pillar because she had walked by and caught his attention in the halls. _I do __**not**__ like Evans!_ Oh he tried and tried to make people believe that.

_No Professor, I do __**not**__ like Evans!_ He would say to McGonagall when she used to reprimand him for not paying attention in class. _Then why, Mister Potter, are you sitting in front of your half transformed water goblet and looking over at Miss Evans like she could be a pot of galleons?_

_No Remus! I do __**not**__ like Evans!_ He would yell at his friends when they would elbow him and laugh when Lily walked by and gave him a fleeting smile. _Then why are you redder than a phoenix on its burning day right now?_

_Dammit Hagrid! I do __**not**__ bloody like Evans!_ He would yell at their gamekeeper when they kept him company from time to time as he tended to the school cabbages. _Then why are yeh assaultin' poor Nigel like tha' since she walked by? _Hagrid's pet Niffler never did quite like James after that day.

Eventually he gave up on fighting people about it. He had gone home in the summer after his fourth year at Hogwarts and spoken to his father. He asked him about girls, to which he got a very awkward explanation in return before he burst out that it wasn't like that and he just wanted one to notice him. Thankfully his father didn't press the matter on who the girl was, he just smiled nostalgically and gave him some advice.

When they returned as fifth years James decided to flaunt the fact that he had feelings for the red head instead of denying it. He had to admit most of the stuff he did to get her attention was even questionable by his standards. He couldn't help it though. When she came into view he always panicked and by the time the words were spilling out of his mouth or his hand was in his hair he was inwardly screaming "you stupid gimp, what did you just say?! Was that a pick up line involving broom sticks? Merlin, **no!**"

Well that was how it started out anyway. The first couple of times he'd brought up the idea of them going out or on a date and Lily had openly rejected him, he was wounded. He didn't know what to do. He was _James Potter_. His mum loved him! He was picked as a chaser for the quidditch team by his second year! Why didn't she like him? He admitted that since second year he definitely had a bit of a thing for Lily. By third year he certainly enjoyed watching her play with her hair through History classes. By fourth year he had experienced some _very_ questionable dreams about her. Once waking up to Sirius looming over him with a perfectly evil smile relaying how he had been moaning out her name. Wow, he did not live that one down until very recently and that was only because Sirius had seemed to have forgotten it for the time being.

By fifth year, when he had accepted he definitely thought Lily was a pretty girl and he would certainly like to snog her, he had tried his luck only to be turned down. That was when his infatuation seemed to grow to uncontrollable proportions. How could she turn him down? He was a handsome lad, loads of people told him that. Nearly everyone liked him that wasn't dressed in green and silver at their school. It was puzzling. Lily Evans was a problem James Potter wanted to solve. He definitely played it up to his friends that she was something he needed to conquer, when in reality he realized towards the end of his fifth year that Lily Evans was not something he wanted to conquer at all.

Lily Evans was the most exquisitely fascinating witch. She was smart and caring and funny. She could balance her school work as well as prefect duties and have a huge amount of people admire her. Including her teachers. Lily Evans looked out for everyone. Lily Evans helped people with their homework. Lily Evans absolutely annihilated everyone in potions. (Well besides Snape but he didn't count, he was a little git.) Lily Evans was proud and strong and beautiful. She was the perfect example of a Gryffindor. James Potter could never want or hope to conquer such a woman. He just knew he wanted her respect. But for the life of him he couldn't bloody control himself around her long enough to convey that.

Every time he tried to tell her she looked pretty it came out as some kind of derogatory remark that made him want to punch himself for afterwards. Every time he tried to have a conversation with her it ended in his friends all cooing behind him and causing him to fumble. Every damn time he was in her presence he played with his stupid hair, or hexed her, or generally screwed up his chances. He should really have just given up because it did occur to him that he, James Potter, quidditch captain and loveable jokester, just did not seem to have as much luck with the ladies.

Sirius seemed to have girls following him around to which he was either oblivious to, or actively ignored. And while James knew there was more than a few girls that would have liked to have gotten him behind a tapestry or two… they didn't have dark red hair and green eyes and that apparently was his thing. Suddenly a bit of scrunched up parchment rolled over to land in front of him and he was pulled from his thoughts. He glanced over to Sirius who was finally sitting forward on all the legs of his chair and looking over at him with a grin.

He quickly unravelled the note and read it.

_Lily is a type of flower, not a following mate. You really need to learn to disguise your day dreaming. Pluck that Lily already! I believe in you!_

He quickly scrawled a s_hut up _and rolled it back. He glanced over at her once more but this time she was very much paying attention to Babbling again. Her hair was out today. He loved it when her hair was out. But then again he loved it when her hair was up too because then he could stare at the cute little freckle she had on her neck just below her left ear. At that moment he was so very thankful none of his friends practiced legilimency. The taunting he would have been subjected to had any three of them heard about ninety percent of the Lily-related things floating about his head would be immeasurable.

Another note rolled to rest in front of him.

_PRONGS SHE'S LOOKING AT YOU! QUICK, ACT COOL! PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR THAT ALWAYS IMPRESSES HER!_

He could hear Sirius muffling his laughter. He looked down at the parchment he had been writing on only to notice he had traced out the letters L.E again. He swore and went to dab his quill in his ink pot in an attempt to scribble out the silly letters but as he did his eyes glanced her way in a rhythmic fashion. Sirius wasn't lying. She was looking at him again. He didn't know what to do. Their eyes caught each other's once again and without meaning to his hand made a move for his hair. This of course wasn't the best idea seeing as it was already preoccupied with his quill. It resulted in an entire ink pot spilt all over his desk, hands, robes, werewolf best friend, and runes dictionary.

He swore. Sirius was openly laughing at him now, as was Peter. Remus quickly helped him with the clean-up saying something about "two times in two weeks" but he wasn't really paying attention. He had once again made a complete idiot out of himself in front of Lily. How many times could this happen? Surely he had to calm down around her at some point? He was a laughing stock. As soon as the desk and two boys were clean of the ink a third note rolled over and settled in front of him. James sighed and sprawled it open.

_I think you and I need to have a Sirius discussion over the definition of cool. Because my word Prongs was that __**smooth**__._

He underlined his reply of _will you stop it!_ about five times too many before rolling it back. He felt like curling up into a ball from embarrassment. He opted to just sliding down in his chair until he was almost invisible to the class. There was only so many times in a day he could siphon off his embarrassment as heroism and act like it didn't faze him. Well no, that wasn't true. A lot of the time he did just decide to bask in his own idiocy. Who better to laugh at than yourself? But dousing oneself in ink wasn't really something to write home about. Although he expected his mother would probably find the good in it.

James sighed loudly and Remus gave him a sideways glance. 'Don't worry about it Prongs. I reckon she found that endearing.' He whispered, nodding his head over to where she sat. When James followed his lead he noticed both Lily and Mary looking at him. Lily had a sweet little smirk on before she turned back to Babbling and Mary winked at him. He felt himself smile unwillingly and tried to act like he didn't want to jump for joy. When Babbling started to get into particularly difficult rune translations, he decided it was time to follow Remus's lead. He looked over to Sirius, who was apparently a few steps ahead of him, copying down notes already. The rest of the class passed by without incident.

Something told James that today wasn't a day to annoy Lily, so he didn't bother her as they filed out of the room. As they made their way out of their last class of the day they were thankful they only had one level to climb to their Gryffindor tower. James strode on ahead with Peter coming up close on his heels while Sirius and Remus followed along behind them cavalierly. As they got to the sixth floor landing a small first year Ravenclaw girl seemed to notice the foursome and missed the last step she was descending and landed flat on her face. James smirked a little but bent down to where she was pushing herself up, blood coming from her lip.

'Hey, you okay?' He asked and her lip began to quiver. 'Uh-uh, no tears.' He nodded astutely, raising his wand. He used the _episkey_ spell non-verbally and the small split in her lip sealed up and she blinked a few times allowing a couple of stray tears to trail from her eyes. James wiped the tears from her cheek then pinched it.

'Ow.' She smiled at that. James grabbed her under the arms and lifted her to her feet with ease.

'Alright?' He asked and she replied with a lot of nodding and a coy smile. 'Do you perhaps need a chaperone to the bathroom to help with the clean up?' She just shook her head at this. It did seem she was rather lost for words before the popular sixth year. James found it decidedly cute and ruffled up her hair. 'Off you go then.' Her cheeks went bright red when she realised how many people were standing behind them waiting to climb the stairs and she ran off to find a bathroom.

'Well at least we know you're not completely useless with the ladies Prongs.' Sirius spoke from his right side and clapped him on the shoulder. 'Let's veer away from the minors though shall we?'

'I can't help it if they just flock to my natural charms and good looks Padfoot. T'is a curse I must endure. For the sake of my people.' James sighed as Sirius rested his arm around his neck. They began climbing the stairs together.

'If either of your heads got any bigger you'd have to drag them behind you when you walked.' Peter spoke dodging them easily to find a higher place on the stairs as they began to change. It didn't put them out, it only meant a slightly longer walk to the portrait hole.

'I thought they already did that?' A voice came from behind them that certainly wasn't Remus. James froze as he usually did in her presence. Lily and Mary just walked by as the boys made way for them. James noticed the kind smile on Lily's face that betrayed her words. When they were a few steps up James let his head fall and rest on Sirius's shoulder and Sirius curled his arm up a little further to stroke his hair.

'There, there Prongs.' He cooed, patting him.

'Sometimes I wonder how you turn into the dog when he's clearly the love-sick puppy in this group.' Remus said once Lily and Mary were out of earshot. Sirius laughed at that.

'Are we all forgetting that I am literally named after the Dog Star? The form was mine from birth Moony. _Birth_.' Sirius still had his hand on James' head as they began to follow after the girls. James was absently thinking of the sweet smile on Lily's face leaving him to still be very much attached to Sirius's shoulder.

'Are you guys- **whoa!**' Sirius almost choked James as he yanked him by the throat as a jet of light narrowly missed his face. The boys all turned their attention to the top of the staircase where Lily and Mary had disappeared from. They noticed Mulciber and Snape standing together, snickering. James thanked Sirius after he regained his footing and they all had their wands drawn.

'Alright there four eyes?' Mulciber spat out over the railing where he and Snape were now holding their wands.

'Fine actually.' James shrugged. 'Seeing as my eyesight is better than yours, mine won't miss.' As James flicked a hex at the boys Mulciber deflected it. When Sirius did the same Snape deflected it. Mulciber's attempt was deflected by Peter but it had distracted them from Snape who landed one on Sirius and blood spat out from his chest instantly. Sirius didn't so much as cry in pain as he quickly slapped a hand over the gash and Remus shouted out.

'**Enough!**' His voice trailed down the staircase to where a few students were watching the display and everyone froze.

'Snape! Detention!' Remus called out but paid the two boys little attention as he flew over to Sirius who was crouched down now looking slightly paler than usual. James had gotten to him before Remus trying to inspect his wound.

'Quick, let me look.' He fussed over his best friend and while the two boys tried to tend to Sirius, Peter kept his wand out towards Snape and Mulciber who had both now decided to flee the scene. 'Uh, Moony. I don't know a spell for cuts this deep!' James's voice was high with anxiety. Sirius's head was drooping slightly as the blood began to drip from his clothes now it was flowing so heavily.

'Moony!' James shouted but Remus was frozen. Peter was now beside them.

'Quick we better get him to the hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey before be bloody bleeds out!' Peter urged and grabbed James. He was thankful that someone seemed to be thinking a little more clearly in the situation than he could. He heaved Sirius's arm over his shoulder and they made their way down three sets of staircases and pushed by a few worried looking students. As they got to the fourth floor one screamed out to stop them as they passed her.

'What happened!?' Adams had grabbed a hold of James to stop them and he shouted at her.

'Leave it the hell alone Adams! He needs help! Not a detention!' He was so used to this prefect seeming to have it out for Sirius he couldn't think rationally at the moment. Adam's just slapped him clean across the face and he lost his hold on Sirius.

'Sirius!' She pulled the boy to herself and Remus came from behind them and held him up. She pulled him down into her lap as she sat back on the stairs, Remus helping her with Sirius's weight. She looked as if she was trying to recall something in the back of her mind, furiously. Then it came to her.

'_Vulnera Sanentur.'_ She spoke softly running her wand over the gash. It began to close just as Sirius's body started to fit. Adams seemed to freeze at this. The incantation was clearly advanced healing magic. It should have worked for the deepest of wounds. She didn't allow herself to panic however and she seemed to decide to try it over again.

She spoke the words over again and the gash knit together more as she ignored the violent shaking and tried to hold Sirius steady and stay calm. James was frozen still as he watched. It still wasn't healed and Adams swore. A third time she spoke the rhythmic incantation and Sirius looked like he was breathing again. The gash seemed to be completely sealed now although very red and inflamed. James watched in awe as Sirius slumped into Adams lap fully and she brushed the hair out of his face. When James looked up to examine her, her face was horror stricken. She was covered in blood now. Sirius was worse. He looked down and realised he too was smeared in it.

'What happened?' She asked feverishly directing her attention to Remus.

'Snape.' Remus, who still seemed to be as shocked as James, just shook his head shrugging.

'It's okay. You'll be okay.' She was still stroking his face, wiping beads of sweat away, and Sirius seemed to be regaining a little bit of his consciousness. 'Help me you idiots. He still needs to see Madam Pomfrey. That only closed the wound, he's lost an astronomical amount of blood.' She directed a perfectly cold look at James who reacted as soon as he could find his feet.

'Adams…' James started as he and Peter lifted Sirius up and helped him find his footing. Remus was shaking slightly as he did the same with the younger prefect.

'I'm going to find that little shit and wipe his nose with a nail encrusted plank of wood!' She wasn't quite shouting, but her words were fierce as she hurried along behind them as they made their way quickly over to the hospital wing entrance. 'The headmaster is going to hear about this! How can he think using dark magic like this is acceptable?!'

'No.' They heard weakly from Sirius. 'Just leave it.' He managed to get out as they got to the hospital wing doors.

'Fat chance.' Adams spoke for all of them but as she made to open the door Sirius pulled on her robes and stood on his own.

'Please. Leave it.' He looked perfectly pathetic, covered in blood and swaying slightly with James and Peter standing to either side ready to catch him. Adams stared at him for a moment her expression unreadable.

She blinked, 'oh for goodness sake! Fine!' She turned and pushed open the doors. 'Madam Pomfrey! A student has stupidly fallen on a shard of glass! No idea how, please treat this moron!' She announced tramping in. James, who had caught Sirius and was helping him to follow her lead, felt Sirius trying to laugh. It admittedly turned into a coughing splutter before Madam Pomfrey came out from her office and shrieked at the sight of that much blood on three of her students. The matron started barking orders and once Sirius was safely in a bed they were all washed over with a sense of ease.

* * *

><p>AN; While it says that the spell to heal sectumsempra was created by Snape, I honestly doubt that it was. It's used in the series by healers and Dumbledore and Snape can't be THAT well known as a spell creator? I feel like he <em>did<em> create the need for it being used three times over however. So that's what I'm sticking with. I honestly doubt in their time at Hogwarts Severus Snape never actively sought the Marauders out and did a few hexes of his own. He did try and use sectumsempra on James in SWM, so truly even if it's a little dramatic, I feel this scene is plausible.


	15. Chapter 15

Two days on Aaliyah was in the library alone finishing off her last bit of holiday homework for transfiguration. The Easter holidays hadn't started as of yet, but she couldn't help herself. As she dotted the last period on her essay and looked over it, her mind drifted to the horrific scene she'd witnessed on Tuesday. She felt her heart race a little faster as the image of Sirius covered in thick warm blood snapped before her. She couldn't understand for the life of her why Sirius had decided to play down the fact that Snape, he and James' sworn enemy, had used such horrible magic on them. But when they dragged him to those hospital doors and he had pushed his friends off him to take a weak stand on his own and pleaded so helplessly to her that she not mention it, her heart had missed a beat and she had agreed.

She found it disturbing but she didn't want to go back on the promise. Once she had explained to Madam Pomfrey that she had found him after he clumsily fell through a window, the matron got to work immediately, gathering dittany and whipping up a blood replenishing potion. She had commended Aaliyah for her quick thinking to seal the wound. Ali was so thankful in that moment that her mother was an advanced healer and enjoyed teaching her healing spells when she was home from school. "You never know when they'll come in handy." Kanika's voice rang in her head and she smiled. Her mum, the mastermind midget. She would have gotten a smack clean across the head for even thinking that in Kanika's presence, she thought, and rolled up her transfiguration essay.

OWLs were coming up next term and Ali could certainly feel the rise in their work load, but school work never bothered her. It excited her. She placed the essay away in her bag and got to her feet. She intended to hand it in early in the hope that McGonagall would mark it and give her the results before she left school for home. However, after she left the library intending to descend the stairs to the first floor, she found herself standing outside the doors of the hospital wing instead of at her Head of House's office. She blinked, unsure of why her feet had carried her in such a vastly different direction. She turned away at first but then told herself she should check on Sirius, make sure her spell had left as little scarring as possible. That way she could relay it to her mother proudly. Yes. Perfect idea.

She pushed open one of the double doors and slipped inside. The sun was setting by now and the torches around the place were lighting up, bathing the wing in many shades of orange. She looked around and noticed Sirius had been moved from the bed he had been in two days ago to the one closest to the matron's office. The only other occupant was a Hufflepuff third year who had his arm in a sling. He was watching her and she suddenly felt like an absolute idiot for making her way here to see someone she found to be particularly foul. But the wound. She had to inspect the wound. She nodded to herself ignoring the stares of the Hufflepuff and made her way over to where Sirius was laying.

He was thankfully asleep. He seemed to be much better for wear as he had kicked most of the bed sheets off the actual bed and they were tangled around his lower limbs. He was sprawled out and breathing evenly with a hand up resting over where his chest was bandaged up. This posed a problem. For a moment she contemplated how she would inspect the wound with him sleeping like that, and it still being covered. But then she seemed to forget about her reasons for being there and watched as his chest slowly rose and fell. He seemed so peaceful in that moment so she allowed herself to stand quietly and admire him. For it wasn't often she was able to do so without him either making some kind of remark that made her want to locate a beaters bat and take it to his face. Or that he wasn't doing _something_ that required her to be reprimanding him for.

As his chest rose and fell, rose and fell, she reached out and touched her hand to where she had sealed up the gaping gash. It flashed back before her eyes again and she shivered. She wasn't particularly squeamish around blood, but anyone would have lost themselves in that situation. It had been everywhere. So dark and still pulsating from his chest and soaking his then tattered school shirt. Her face adopted a concerned look as she directed her attention up to his face. She relaxed when she saw how peacefully he was dreaming. He twitched slightly in his sleep. A very small smile even tugged the corner of his lips but it faded just as quickly and she wondered what it must have been filling his head to cause him to smile even out of his subconscious.

She got lost in her actions and didn't realise she was brushing a few of his long black hairs out of his face. The skin of his forehead was so soft to touch. His hair was longer than she'd ever seen it at the moment, it would have seemed he hadn't cut it since the start of the school year seven months ago. Her eyes trailed down his quite perfectly shaped nose and rested on his lips again. They were a deep red at the moment, which was a compliment against his creamy white skin. She expected it was from all the blood replenishing potions Madam Pomfrey must have been feeding him. As she retracted her hand slowly from his hair, which was a little damp from sweat, she touched his bandages once again. Sirius's hand, where it was resting on his lower rib cage reacted to the touch and darted up to grab her. She squeaked and looked up at his face once more.

His pale grey eyes were staring at her in what she could only have described as astonishment. He didn't let go of her hand and Ali felt her cheeks going bright red. It was then that the hospital doors swung open and a rowdy crowd entered. She quickly took the moment of noise to recoil from his touch and both Sirius and Ali's attentions were turned to where James, Peter and Remus were filing over to them.

'Adams!' James shouted and raced over to Sirius' bed. He flew around the bedside fluidly and grabbed her into a one sided hug. 'Lady of the hour!' He announced loudly. Ali couldn't bring herself to look anywhere near Sirius having just been caught red handed practically stroking him.

'Hey Ali.' She relaxed a little when she saw Remus take a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. She was overwhelmed by not only the act of molestation she had just been found in but the four boys she was usually busting all seeming to be cheering at her company. Peter had even come around to pat her shoulder.

She allowed her eyes to trace back to Sirius now and he was still looking at her. The shock having been replaced with grin. _Just bloody perfect, _she thought. She was never going to live this down.

'I just came to check on your-' she stopped herself from saying chest and cursed to herself again for blushing. James and Peter were being so loud beside her she wanted to melt into the floor.

'What is all this _noise_?' The matron peered around her office door.

'Sorry Poppy!' James called back. 'We'll keep it down.' He let Ali go and pointed at Remus. 'Dammit Moony, you need to stop causing so much of a ruckus, you hooligan.'

'Shut up Potter.' Ali rolled her eyes defending her friend instantly but James just laughed and grabbed her into one of his arms again. She definitely did not like that. She had never been wildly fond of skin to skin contact. She even kept over exaggerated hugging to a minimum with her parents.

'No really Adams.' James sobered setting her free. 'We never really got a chance to thank you. And ever since we've just kind of been here. We were meaning to track you down.'

'Yeah. If it hadn't been for you.' Peter spoke from her left.

'Thanks Adams.' Sirius spoke for the first time now summing up what they were trying to say. All eyes turned on him, but Sirius's own were fixed on the prefect. There was a lingering silence for a moment.

'W-well I couldn't just let you bleed out on the stair case. Someone might have slipped in it!' As soon as the words left her mouth she regretted it. James, Sirius and Peter all burst into laughter. Sirius stopped abruptly and clutched his chest and Remus, who was smiling beside him, sat forward to make sure he was alright.

'Not used to being the one on the bedside are you Moony?' Sirius joked and all the boys laughed at that, even Remus. Aaliyah felt herself frown and become increasingly out of place. Why these morons were always laughing about Remus's hospital visits she never thought she would understand?

'How is it healing?' She asked feeling there had to at least be some reasoning to all the commotion she was enduring.

'So great.' Said Peter. 'Well, besides-'

'Yeah Poppy's really impressed Adams. No idea how you even knew healing magic like that.' James interrupted unknowingly.

'Her mother's a healer at St. Mungo's.' Remus took the chance to talk up his unlikely friend. James whistled and that's when Aaliyah took note of how Sirius was acting. When she fixed her look on him he was rubbing his chest trying to go unnoticed.

'Is it hurting?' She flared up moving forward and Sirius just laughed.

'Since when are you so vigilant about anything other than unfairly detaining me?' She recoiled her advancing hand instantly remembering how he had been previously holding her. Then she noticed the red seeping through the bandages.

She gasped, 'It's re-opened?!' She indicted pulling her wand out but the matron pushed Ali and James aside out of nowhere.

'Move. Move!' She had a red cup of potion at his lips instantly as her free hand flicked her wand at the bandages and they flew off to reveal a neatly opening cut, much smaller than it had been, but still producing fair flow of blood. As soon as she had spoken the familiar incantation once, the small wound closed at her wand tip.

'I wish you would all just tell me what actually happened. Then I might have a better chance of making sure this was the right course of action.' She glared around at the boys. 'This wound is infected with dark magic, not glass shards. Drink!' She demanded and Sirius gulped down the potion not wanting the back hand of her wrath.

'Some things are better left unknown Poppy.' Sirius supplied after finishing the potion and Ali noticed his attention turn to Remus. The matron sighed.

'The lot of you need to vacate. I won't have him laughing at you all and opening it up again. Out!' She demanded and James just reached out to Sirius and grabbed his hand.

'Goodbye for now my love!' He rasped out, pretending to sniffle.

'We shall be reunited, fear not.' Sirius replied in a much more casual manner as they lingered hand in hand. They started laughing and Sirius's hand left James' and went for his chest.

'**Out**!' Madam Pomfrey bellowed and Remus placed a hand on Aaliyah's lower back, leading them to be the first out the doors. James and Peter weren't far behind.

'Why is he covering for Snape? I don't get it?' Ali asked as the four of them stood outside the hospital wing. Remus looked guilty and Peter shuffled his feet beside them.

'We've done a lot of crappy things to the toad-breath Adams. I guess he feels like he doesn't want to be a snitch.' James thought about it. 'And not the good kind.' He added for good measure, like anyone would confuse the two.

'She's right though.' Ali spoke to them all now instead of just directing her thoughts to the one she knew best. 'That's _dark_ magic. Foul. That healing spell only needs to be used once at the best of times. Experienced healers wouldn't think to use it twice. I read up on it yesterday. If the spell doesn't work the first time, it should have been rendered useless. Luckily I didn't know that, because it seemed to work after three tries.' For the first time in her life the day prior she was glad there was a piece of information about a spell she hadn't memorized.

James was looking at her in a way she didn't quite understand. Peter seemed to be at a loss for words. Remus drew his hand up from her lower back and gave her a reassuring back rub before letting it fall and she realised she'd forgotten he had allowed it to loiter there.

'I'd rather not dwell on it actually. It's taken every ounce of my being not to track him down and get myself expelled as it is.' James spat. 'I'm pretty sure my mum would smack me reasonably hard if that happened.' Peter laughed at James' words as James rested his body weight on the shorter, stouter boy by leaning against his shoulder.

'You coming up to the common room?' Remus enquired and Ali remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

'Oh, no. You go on ahead. I'm off to see McGonagall.' She was already feeling uneasy being around the boys for so long without some kind of prefect related reason to be doing so.

'I'd love to pay Minnie a visit.' James interjected.

'Yeah. I reckon she'll have some of those biscuits. She's seeing the fifth years soon isn't she?' Peter pepped up and Remus was caught smiling at his friends kind actions.

'Well, looks like you're stuck with us. Sorry Ali.' Remus offered turning to her.

Ali sighed loudly, 'Fine. Just, don't break any school rules on the walk, if that's possible for you two.' She directed at James and Peter and they laughed, James saluting her.

* * *

><p>The next day after classes Aaliyah found herself once again before the hospital wing doors. She didn't even realise she here until she was. This time it was particularly strange to her as she had been on her way to the library. She had <em>never<em> gotten lost on her way to the library. She refused to go in this time however as she could hear James's voice coming from inside and it had taken her a good two hours to shake the boys yesterday. She wasn't sure she was ready for that much social interaction again. The boys she usually turned her nose up at for their misdeeds had surprised her yesterday afternoon.

They were their usual loud selves in front of McGonagall. When they'd reached her office James addressed her flippantly by nicknames, which the stern professor had reprimanded him for. When they left Peter had engaged Ali in a conversation about healing spells. He seemed to be very curious about them. They spoke about it all the way up to the common room and she hadn't even realised she had sat down with them, she had been so engrossed in trying to educate the stringy haired boy. She always got carried away when it came to learning and teaching.

She found after a while that they were all a lot like Remus in the way they didn't make her feel threatened. It was curious. She didn't know what it was about the other boys around the school that approached her, but they frightened her in a way. Not that she was overly fearful, but the way they approached her always seemed belligerent and the way they all seemed to stutter and fall over themselves made her generally pull away from their conversations. Remus's friends however seemed to just continue on their normal conversations in her presence and occasionally asked her a few questions about herself. Remus offered his help with a few of her replies from time to time seeming to enjoy the joined interactions.

Still, despite their easy natures and the socialness being casual and relaxed, Ali wasn't used to being surrounded by unfamiliar people and it exhausted her. No, she wasn't ready to jump into that again. She turned away from the door and bumped into someone clumsily. They both steadied themselves and she quickly offered a sorry in reply.

Regulus just stared at her, seemingly devoid of any emotion. He contemplated something before speaking.

'Is my- Is he okay?' He asked making eye contact and Aaliyah noticed a flash of very real worry in his eyes. He vastly resembled his older brother, there was no doubt about that. But he probably wasn't _as_ rudely good looking, and fairly slighter of form. His eyes were less pale than Sirius's. They were probably better described as blue rather than grey. Ali shared classes with Regulus and yet they had never spoken a word before this.

'You don't want to go in and check for yourself?' Aaliyah wondered raising a brow. It was common knowledge that the brothers didn't really have a profound bond or anything. But they were still _brothers_. Aaliyah had the shrilling thought of Tucker, her baby sibling, covered in blood like Sirius and she felt her eyes sting at the mere thought. She wouldn't have left his bedside. He meant the world to her.

'Is he alright?' He spoke a little more demandingly this time and Ali huffed at his stubbornness.

'He'll be fine. No thanks to your bloody mate Snivelly though.' She couldn't even stop herself using the adopted nickname for the greasy sixth year.

'Stupid bastard.' Regulus swore under his breath. Aaliyah wasn't sure if he had intended the insult for his brother or his attacker. It really could have gone either way.

'Thanks Adams.' He bowed his head politely to her and turned around leaving from where he had come. Ali just stared after his retreating figure mildly stunned. When she recovered and looked to her left she caught a couple of girls craning their heads to see if they could get a glimpse through the hospital doors which had been left ajar.

'What do you lot need?' Ali enquired and the three girls froze and turned to her. They had nothing to supply her with and just kind of looked back and forth at each other.

'If you don't need a healer or have a friend inside, get a move on.'

'Is he okay?' One of them struck up the courage to ask. She was the only Slytherin of the group.

'Blimey, yes, he's fine. Now move along.' All the girls smiled at that and easily got a move on down the corridor towards the grand staircase together. Aaliyah sighed knowing she was probably going to get cornered by her dorm mates again when she got back upstairs. They had been trying relentlessly to get the full story from her which at first she enjoyed toying with, but was now beginning to tire of spinning lies in an attempt to keep her promise to Sirius. She reassured herself that in the morning she would be taking the train home to see her family.


	16. Chapter 16

Sirius was only allowed to leave the hospital wing nearly a week after the incident three days into their Easter break at the discretion of their fussy matron. She was hesitant to let him leave even then, to which Sirius argued that the wound was now pink and clearing up nicely from the dittany. He hadn't had a dizzy spell since Thursday when it last reopened. He was going stir crazy locked in the hospital wing. His friends were being sent away nearly every time they came. As he finally made his way up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower alone, he felt free. If there was one thing he hated, it was being trapped somewhere. Anywhere. He had been trapped in his childhood home long enough. He would never be subjected to that kind of torture again.

Still feeling a little weak he took the stairs slowly and ambled up to where he thought his friends would be. Seeing as the Easter break had started after last Friday's classes, some students had gone home to see their families. He and James had opted to stay as they knew Remus would be, due to the full moon taking place that very night. Peter had followed suit. This had been most of the reason Sirius had flirted his way into being released a little earlier than their matron usually would have allowed. If there was one thing he refused to miss, it was a full moon run. He always basked in the feeling of transforming into his animagus form. Things were much simpler as a dog.

After he'd entered the common room to find a fair amount of students talking loudly amongst themselves, he made his way up the dormitory stairs to the left. Usually more than half the student body would go home for holidays. But as much as it didn't seem like it at Hogwarts, they were all living through very dark times. Most parents were telling their children to stay where it was safe, for as long as they could. When he finally made it to the sixth year boys' dorm he slammed the door open and strode in to see this three best friends awaiting him.

'There he is!' James sung jumping off Remus's bed and bounding over to him. 'The prodigal son returns!' He threw an arm around Sirius. The two of them were probably a little too comfortable with each other as it was. There had to be a line drawn at some point, but it didn't look likely. There were never better friends known to have existed than James and Sirius. They met before they even clambered onto the Hogwarts Express, shared a carriage on the way there. It was James who inspired Sirius to oppose his family and ultimately defy the sorting hat's choice to place him in Slytherin.

James meant the absolute world to Sirius. He would do anything for him. And he knew James felt the exact same. They barely ever fought, and if they did it didn't last more than thirty minutes tops. As he was subjected to a hair ruffle and dragged over to Remus's bed where they dusted aside a few chocolate wrappers and joined the exhausted looking boy, Sirius was content again.

He and Remus didn't share as deep a connection as he and James. But barely anyone did, so it wasn't a surprise. Remus was much less obnoxious than he and James and so provided a sense of reason for the two others. They were still both very fond of each other, and Sirius knew he'd fight anyone that tried to put Remus down. As he and James often did.

Then there was Peter. They all liked Peter at this point of course, but it was very apparent when they first started hanging out with each other that Peter was just clinging to them because they provided a sense of security for the boy. Hanging out with James and Sirius meant Peter was part of the 'cool' group. That meant he wouldn't be picked on, much like Remus. But it was quite evident that Remus had to be provoked to join them, mostly by James who wanted to open the boy up from the get go. Peter weaselled his way in by force. In the beginning Sirius was overly wary of him and gave him a hard time. But six years on and they were too close to one another to worry about what happened to start it all.

'You look dreadful.' Sirius supplied sizing Remus up. Remus gave him a warning look.

'So do you.' He threw back. Sirius loved the full moon. Not only did he get to transform into a dog and break a bunch of school rules and run around with a bloody werewolf, he also got to piss Remus off. And Remus would bite back this close to his transformation. Oh it was fun.

'Poppy seemed to think I looked dashing. Turned the charm on for the old bird so I could come join you tonight Moony, don't be so cruel.' He offered Remus his best puppy dog eyes. And they were _good_. He had mastered them before he made the change from human to dog. Now it was just arrogant how well he pulled them off. But this close to the full moon, puppy dog eyes meant _nothing._

'Get a bloody haircut Padfoot you look ridiculous.' Remus quipped and turned his attention back to the star chart he was going over for their astronomy homework.

Sirius was just about to drop his jaw in mock indignation when a few loose hairs fell out from behind his ear and dangled in front of his face blocking his view. Remus had a point. His hair was longer than some of the girls at the school now. But he couldn't help it. He had been forced for so many years to keep his hair tidy and at a respectable length. He had to uphold the Black family name of course. Now that he'd been disinherited by his dear old mother, he took that as his cue to see exactly how long he could get it.

'Nah, I'm working on getting it long enough for Evans to braid.' The evil look that contorted on his face as he turned to James was met with anger.

'She's not going to touch your stupid hair.' James sounded resolutely. His hand betrayed his strong words as it travelled up and dug around in his untameable locks. Sirius just laughed at him, throwing his head forward and covering his face with long glossy strands of midnight black.

'Oh _Lily_. Oh _Lily_!' Sirius hugged himself re-enacting the scene he'd woken James out of back in their fourth year. James groaned. He surely hoped his best friend had forgotten that, but Sirius never forgot blackmail material on James Potter.

'Well at least tie it back or something, you're going to start walking into pillars like Prongs.' Peter offered, leaving his clean space to their left and joining them on the floor near Remus's bed, clearing away a few chocolate wrappers.

'Oh, I have an idea.' Sirius's brain lit up from the words. 'Let's go get me a hair tie from Evans' dorm?' He had an ulterior motive of course. 'Have the girls gone home for the break? Prongs you could steal some of her knickers and put them in your bedside table to snuggle at night.' He expected more of an uproar but James just laughed.

'We could give it a go.' He replied.

'Moony could snag a pair of McKinnon's.' Sirius' eyes narrowed in cheek as he surveyed Remus. Remus looked up from his star chart with a less than happy look.

'It's forbidden for boys to go up to the girls dormitories.' It was all he supplied before turning his attention back to the star chart.

Sirius repeated him in the most mocking tone he could muster. 'You sound like Adams.' He added rolling his eyes. 'James and I will go then. I'll grab you a pair if I find any Moony, don't be so glum. Coming Wormtail?' Sirius pushed himself up off Remus' bed with James close behind him. It was the holidays and they were bored. Why not? They passed the other dorm doors and made it to the stairs leading down to the common room. They had never had a reason to venture up to the girls dorms before. The three boys had gotten to the bottom of the stairs and made their way out of the doorway and across to the girls as quietly as possible.

'Ladies first?' Sirius looked at Peter. Peter pulled a face.

'I'm not going up there first. What if we're caught?' He squeaked.

'You're such a baby wormtail.' Sirius rolled his eyes and stepped forward. He'd made his way up around a quarter of the steps before suddenly the stairs flattened underneath him and he only narrowly managed to turn to fall on his back before sliding down to the bottom. James was drawing an unwanted amount of attention to them as he couldn't help the loud laughter shaking his entire body now.

'Shut up Prongs!' Sirius spat rubbing his backside as he lifted himself from the floor by the banister. When they turned around the girl's staircase was no longer a staircase. It instead resembled a large stone slide. They watched as the stairs, beginning at the top, one by one began popping back up into stairs again. Sirius turned to James and the idea seemed to hit them both at once.

'Gryffindor slide!' James screamed and everyone in the common room, were they not already, turned to them.

It was half an hour later when Remus had begrudgingly decided to see what the boys were up to, that he found them and every other Gryffindor in the common room lining up at the girl's staircase with cushions from the lounges. They had come up with a system. If girls wanted to ride they would climb to the top and a boy would step onto the last stair when they were ready. The boys were all taking it as a competition to see how many stairs they could climb before they were thrown back down.

There was so much laughter and shouting that Remus was even smiling by the time he got to the boys.

'I thought I said it was forbidden.' Remus spoke when he reached Sirius. James was currently almost halfway up the stairs, cushion in front of him ready to throw it down when the stairs changed.

'You never said it would be fun though.' Sirius winked at him before handing a cushion to a third year girl that went beet red taking it from him as James slid down passed them. Sirius instructed the girl to climb the stairs and get ready before he jumped on.

Peter was instructing the other students to go to the back of the line after they came down. Of course the boys were taking full advantage of having created the sport and letting themselves take precedence at the front. Remus just ignored the rule breaking and took a seat near the fireplace and basked in the noise, it calmed him.

By the time everyone was particularly worn out, dinner was started down stairs and the remaining Gryffindor's all made their way out together. A few of the younger girls all seemed to linger around Sirius as he walked with James. Peter and Remus pulling up the rear.

'But you're okay now aren't you?' One of the young girls asked Sirius. He bored of girls very easily. None of them really seemed to captivate him.

'Yeah, don't worry. Fighting fit.' He entertained them as they all turned to each other and giggled. That was one of the things that made him want to distance himself from the female cohort. The giggling. Did girls do anything else in his presence? Certainly not. Giggling was a bloody rite of passage to girls. He held a deep sense of respect for the girls that spoke to him that _didn't_ giggle. Evans being one. Marlene and Mary weren't too bad anymore. But boy they used to be bloody terrible when they were all younger. The other two girls they shared a dorm with, Sirius didn't ever bother going near, as they were as bad as the first years.

'You know, we can go on Hogsmeade visits this year.' Another of the third year's offered and he heard James snigger beside him at what was clearly a date proposal from a thirteen year old. He was seventeen…

'Hogsmeade's old news.' He brushed off grabbing James. 'Excuse us ladies. We have to duck into the little boys' room.' He winked at them and dragged James off onto the first floor and hoped Remus and Peter would follow.

James burst into laughter. 'Sirius will you accompany me to Madam Puddifoot's?' James teased as they slipped into a classroom waiting for the girls to pass. Peter and Remus wondered in confused.

'Padfoot's getting proposals from thirteen year olds again.' James explained as Sirius rolled his eyes and peered around the classroom door. He smacked James upside the head and dragged him back out now the coast was clear. The four boys made their way down to the great hall to where they usually occupied the end of the Gryffindor table furthest from the teachers. James sat across from Sirius with Peter beside him and Sirius sat beside Remus, making sure he was on the end so to thwart any of the girls from seeking to join them. It was a hassle he didn't overly enjoy. But he'd gotten so used to the eager attitudes of the girls at the school he mostly ignored it these days. He had much more important things to focus on. Like getting into trouble with his mates.

'We won't be far behind you tonight Moony.' James lowered his voice to talk about this subject.

'Yeah. Can't wait to stretch my legs.' Peter raised his arms over his head in a stretch and Sirius barked out a laugh.

'Yes. Those stumpy little legs. Do stretch them. They might get even shorter.' Peter shot Sirius a glare at his words to which Sirius just grinned lazily in return.

'We can't all be omens of death.' Peter snuffed at him and piled some more mash potato on his plate, taking a large serving of gravy with it. The vegetables around the boys went quite untouched. Remus had attempted to tackle some, but they still sat uneaten on his plate. He wasn't really in the mood to be trying anyway.

'I am _not_ a death omen. I'm a fierce black hound!' Sirius' voice was raised but they were still speaking in hushed tones.

'You're adorable mate. Don't worry.' James spoke between spoonful's of his beef casserole. Sirius hated this argument. He always lost.

'I'm _not_ adorable. I'm _a fierce black hound_.' As he finished Remus just pat him on the shoulder.

'Sure, sure fluffy. No one doubts you.' It was at that point that Sirius wasn't happy that moody moony was rearing his head. He grumbled under his breath as they ate and Peter and James discussed the routes they would take out of Hogsmeade and through the forbidden forest. They never bloody teased Peter for being _cute_. But then again it was really only select people that found rats cute. Who in their right minds didn't like dogs? Dogs were great. Sirius knew he lucked out there. James couldn't very well transform and gallivant around much as a bleeding stag. But he and Peter could. And Peter often took more advantage of it than he.

As the boys finished their dinners and headed up to the dorms Remus was getting snappier and snappier and they told him to go and take a nap before the moon got to its peak and Madam Pomfrey would need to collect him. The other boys left him be and gathered in the common room shouting stories back and forth and laughing loudly. Once Remus had left to find the matron, heaving his breaths and shaking as he usually did this close to the moon the boys ventured up to the dorm to get themselves ready.

They always waited a little while for the common room to clear out and also so Remus could transform and calm down before they joined him. While he wasn't a threat to them as animals, he still packed one hell of a wallop and they definitely didn't want to threaten the wolf for fear of gashes that they had received in the early stages before they learnt exactly how to go about interacting with him. It wasn't always a bed of roses. But now that they had been doing it for well over a year it was honestly nothing but fun. Even Remus had to admit the boys' presence certainly calmed him.

They decided that it was too dangerous tonight to go down without James' cloak as Filch would have been on the prowl as it was holidays.

'Wormtail can you transform now? It'll be easier to fit with you in my pocket.' James said, flicking out his prized possession. Peter nodded and started to shrink into his clothing, his body contorting until he dropped to the floor and James bent down to scoop him up. 'Ready?' James looked over at Sirius and he nodded. They left the dorm with the invisibility cloak over them and navigated their way out of the castle and onto the grounds. When they got close to the whomping willow they set Peter down and he made for the knot in the tree.

Sirius transformed now but James always waited until they were in the tunnel to do so. Navigating his antlers around the tree roots was just far too hard. By the time they'd made it all the way to the end, Peter taking refuge on James' hide after he adopted his stag form, they heard the howls coming from above them. The large black dog that was Sirius pushed through into shack and the other two weren't far behind.

They found Remus quite quickly and the pathetic looking wolf was howling and sulking in a corner, where he had blood coming from his leg already. He attacked himself much less now that the boys could transform and provide him with something to do other than digging at the walls and running into the furniture. He reacted to them instantly his ears picking up and his head lowering.

Sirius just bounded forward at him and barked, wagging his tail. Remus moved towards Sirius and James' trot over to join them. He was always a bit of a queen whilst transformed. Last full moon he had lost his antlers for the first time. Boy was that a sight to see. He spent a good half an hour dashing around making a high pitched wining until Remus grew tired of him and smacked him. It threw him clean across the room. Sirius had barked in laughter while Wormtail had been on his back watching the scene take place. James was still sour about it even now.

His little buttons were growing back nicely now as Remus inspected them, sniffing the dog first before moving on to the stag. It didn't take him long to agree to the appearance of friends. Though slightly frightening and gaunt in appearance, Remus wasn't a threat to them as they were. Sirius happily led them out through the tunnel and they embarked on their 'run' as they referred to it. Remus followed behind Sirius and James' galloped behind them. The boys lavished in this freedom. They had learnt so much about Hogwarts whilst on these runs. As Sirius led them towards the edges of the ground and bordering the forest where they wouldn't be a threat, he turned and tackled Remus playfully. They rustled around as James joined them and Peter scurried to the top of his head and jumped off on the ground.

Though Remus wasn't in his right mind at present, he was happy. Transformations had always been an affliction of pain and horror for him. These days the werewolf wasn't alone and terrified, he had things to occupy him. His thoughts became less animalistic and more akin to his own. James snorted loudly and nuzzled his head into the wolf and Remus's paw came at him, scratching playfully. Sirius barked as Peter climbed up onto his back and they followed behind him as he led the way once more. The boys tackled and played until the wee hours of the morning when the moon light would die and Remus would shift back. They then escorted him to the hospital wing under the cloak. They would always return the following day to check on him, bring him chocolate, and cheer him up. Always.


	17. Chapter 17

'Snog him.' Mary implored as the girls sat on their respective beds, stomach down with their heads towards the end so better to face each other.

'Mary!' Lily shouted with a giggle. 'Poor Lupin would have a heart attack. He's weak enough as it is.' She shook her head at her dark haired friend and looked over at Marlene.

'I mean. I could.' Marlene shrugged. 'Let's be honest. Lupin certainly isn't bad to look at, we all know that. I mean he's no Sirius Black, but Black is far too in love with Potter to consider anyone else. We all established that in third year.' Marlene contemplated aloud.

'Oh gosh, can you imagine? He would literally faint.' Mary was laughing loudly now.

'She is right though.' Lily agreed. 'I've caught him loads of times looking over at you all _longingly_.' She let her girly side rear its head when they were in the comfort of their dorm. They had been discussing how Mary had caught Lupin looking at Marlene _again_ in their charms class today. He was definitely trying to hide it, but oh he was _failing_.

'He's definitely cute for a boy.' Mary pointed out with a huge grin.

'He is.' Marlene nodded, a smile forming. 'Ugh. When the back of his hair gets a little longer between terms and he-'

'-ties it at the nape of his neck!' Lily finished for her and they all laughed. Marlene bit her lip. Oh she definitely could snog Lupin.

'When he wears those tattered old beanies on visits to Hogsmeade.' Lily said with a little sigh at the end which Marlene joined in on. Mary squealed.

'He definitely likes you. It's so obvious.' She continued after her outburst.

'Then why hasn't he asked me out?' Marlene frowned. 'I'd say yes. What gives?' The girls all seemed to contemplate this for some time.

'Maybe he's just shy?' Mary offered.

'I dunno. I wouldn't really use shy to describe him. He's a bit more reserved than the other boys, but Potter and Black are the loudest bastards at this school. Lupin's just normal.' Lily added with a scrunched up expression of disdain at her mention of Potter.

'Stop it.' Marlene pointed at her and shook her head.

'What?' Lily was trying to hide her smile now.

'You know damn well what. You definitely like Potter. Hurry up and get over this crap about him being a 'toerag' as you like to say, and go out with him.' Marlene had sat up now. This discussion was very important. It needed higher ground.

'You could go on a double date!' Mary shouted and they both shushed her. 'Well you could.' She offered at a more acceptable decibel.

'What about Mary?' Marlene thought placing a finger to her chin.

'You could try Black?' Lily put forth. Both Marlene and Mary shook their heads at this.

'Not my type.' Mary smirked.

'You know, I wonder about Black sometimes. Maybe he's gay.' Marlene mused. 'I mean, every girl at this school's just about willing to throw their flower at him so to speak and the guy has no time for any of them. Has he even kissed anyone?' Marlene seemed to go deep into thought after that.

'Yeah.' Mary nodded recalling the memory. 'A few actually. He gets a little handsy when they get into the firewhisky in their dorm. I'm sure a few girls in the older grades have taken advantage of it.' Both Lily and Marlene hummed in agreement at that.

'I'm sure Anna Cox was parading around that she made out with him too.' Lily spoke remembering something about it towards the start of the year.

'Gross.' Marlene shook her head. 'I loathe those girls. Such clique-y little harlots.' Marlene's face turned into a disgusted frown. Mary burst out laughing and both the others turned to her in wonder.

'No!' she shouted clutching her sides. 'No! I heard about that!' Both Lily and Marlene turned to each other bemused, their beds being together and Mary's being beside Lily's. When Mary finally calmed down she looked positively bursting with pleasure. 'Bloody Bulstrode in Slytherin hexed Sirius with a hair loss curse and snagged his hairs. He got into the polyjuice potion we we're brewing. You know how some went missing?' Lily and Marlene put the rest together instantly and before long they had tears in their eyes they were laughing so hard.

'Oh dear _lord_!' Lily exclaimed. 'Why haven't we heard about this before now?' She managed to get out. Marlene was still laughing far too hard. Their laughter had ruptured Mary's resolve and she was shaking all over again.

'I heard it from Black actually. That day when he sat with me so Potter could grab the seat beside you?' At Mary's words Lily remembered when Potter had sat beside her. She expected more of his terrible pickup lines or at least a lot of instances that she'd want to hex him. But he was actually quite tolerable. He did seem to be growing up. From time to time. Then he was also a little brute that still enjoyed getting into far too much trouble with Black. She had noticed however that lately it was mostly Sirius serving detentions, and she found that odd.

'This should have been front page news!' Marlene announced.

'He actually had more to say about Adams than that come to think of it.' Mary's face went blank as she explored the memory. 'Yeah. Said she blew his sausage up.'

'She **what**?' Marlene screeched holding back laughter for Mary's reply. Mary _did_ laugh at her wording when she realised how questionable that sentence had sounded.

'No! Like she caught him coming from the kitchens and blew up a sausage he had in his mouth. He said he was impressed and so he outed Cox when she was being nasty to her.' Her words were filled with little hitches in her breath as she tried to keep her laughter at bay.

'Oh lord, I really like Adams.' Lily smiled thinking about how funny it would have been to see her blowing up a sausage in the resident school heartthrob's mouth.

'She's a little rough around the edges so to speak.' Mary thought back to being shaken by her when she had gotten obsessive over the boys being missing from meals and the common room a few months back. 'Come to think of it, what were the boys up to when they kept going missing?' Mary enquired looking at Lily. Marlene still seemed to be laughing at the idea of Sirius covered in sausage particles.

'We never found out.' Lily shrugged. 'Adams and I teamed up a few times to track them down, granted she was doing it on her own almost twenty four seven anyway. But no matter how hard we tried we couldn't find them. Then after a while they started turning up at meals again. And James seems to be popping up unexpectedly even more nowadays.' She sighed and when she looked up Mary and Marlene both had wicked smiles.

'Who now?' Marlene queried. Lily's hand darted up to her mouth at her realized slip-up.

'Oh _James_.' Mary moaned, rolling around on her bed.

'James, _James_.' Marlene joined her, curling her bed sheet around herself making a little cocoon and writhing around in it.

'Touch me _James_!' Mary shouted and Lily tried and failed to calm them down. They taunted her for it for a good five minutes before all three were laughing.

'Hey, we've gone completely off topic here.' Lily chastised. 'Lupin. You need to snog Lupin.'

'Merlin, Lily. Got sex on the brain or something?' Marlene added pursing her lips trying to keep herself stable.

'Should we go find _James_ for you?' Mary ask and she was rewarded with a pillow to the head.

'Both of you shut it!' Lily crossed her arms over her chest and sulked.

'No, you're right. Back to Lupin.' Mary surrendered brandishing her wand and using it to levitate her pyjamas to herself. She and Marlene knew that their best friend would end up with Potter. They knew it better than they knew how to use _wingardium leviosa_. They knew it. The boys knew it. The whole school knew it. Lily most likely even knew it. Poor James was probably the only one that wasn't certain. And that's what Marlene and Mary worried about. Although he never showed any signs of giving up, if she kept turning him down he might lose interest. Maybe he would have pissed off and snogged someone else? They couldn't have that. It had nothing to do with the ongoing bets they had with other students and teachers alike.

'What if Lily and I talk to him?' She directed her attention away from the Potter-Evans situation. Lily seemed to contemplate it. Marlene just shook her head.

'Nope. You know what? Toss you Lily, I'll show you what being a Gryffindor means. I'm just going to march right up to him and snog him where he stands. See what he says to that.' Marlene had always been the gutsiest of the girls in her dorm. It was probably true that she was the gutsiest of all the Gryffindor girls combined. She had the most guys on her belt, she had dated a seventh year when they were in fourth year. She had courage to spare. She was a McKinnon. And the McKinnon's we're a proud family indeed. Even if she was completely, and totally rubbish at transfiguration and probably potions. She made up for it with witty repartee and guts.

'You would _not_.' Lily gaped. Lily was courageous too, but certainly not in the same ways as her pretty blonde friend. She had courage to hex James Potter and Sirius Black when they were being little tyrants. She had courage when Severus had called her a filthy name. She denied him forgiveness for such an act the night he had demanded Mary fetch her saying he would sleep outside of their common room. She was brave. She lived up to her house name. But oh she did not hold a candle to Marlene in the way on sexual gregariousness. Did anyone?

Marlene flashed her a wicked smile and both the girls knew then it was set in motion already. Poor Lupin. He had no idea what he had just gotten himself into by glancing Marlene's way once too many today. Mary started laughing at the look on the blonde's face. A wickeder stare could not have been matched by a Slytherin.

'He's going to faint. I'll bet on it. The guy is literally going to drop dead. You're a hazard.' Mary shook her head.

'He's going to love it. I'll corner him. I'll snog him. I might even let him cop a feel.' Marlene nodded like that was the end of the matter. They were all seventeen year olds. They had urges. Why not?

'Do you think he would? I feel like he's a bit too polite for that?' Lily wondered getting a sort of swirling sensation low in her throat at the idea. It would be nice to have a good old fashioned snog she thought. It had been a long time since she'd had one herself. Her latest recollections of even coming close being of the foul git Aubrey and him trying to force himself on her the night of the last Slug Club party. She shivered at the memory.

'What's wrong Lil?' Mary asked noticing her withdrawal.

'Just think of that tosser Aubrey.' Lily sighed. Marlene and Mary both burst into laughter.

'Him and his fat head.' Marlene spat, laughing viciously.

'I swear it's still bigger to this day. He keeps complaining about it to Flitwick, I heard him once after charms.' Mary wiped away a stray tear of joy. Lily smirked at that. As much of a disgusting arse that Aubrey was, he certainly did get a serving back that night. She had felt bad that the boys had to serve two detentions for that. But Adams had told her she'd gone easy on them. They pretty much just sat and discussed Aubrey's fat head amongst themselves while Adams supervised their 'strenuous' cleaning out of a couple of broom closet's. She'd even let them serve them together. It was the first time she'd seen the younger prefect go easy on _anyone_ for breaking a school rule.

As she was thinking to herself that she should really have thanked Black and Potter for that, and Adams too, their other two dorm mates returned from the common room. They let their conversation pertaining the boys die as they knew the other two girls would certainly ark up and spread whatever they heard. They were a few of the girls that liked to stare dreamily at Black when he wasn't, or even was looking. Which was probably why they had been down in the common room so long. They all bid each other goodnight after they changed into their pyjamas and Lily fell asleep with James Potter in her thoughts.

The following day Lily, Mary and Marlene were sitting in the common room waiting for their unsuspecting victim after classes, and just before dinner. Marlene was starting to get impatient. They had caught Lupin looking over at her again in herbology and she'd even smiled and waved at him. He just flushed pink and turned away like he didn't know he'd been caught. As James, Sirius and Peter all clambered through the portrait hole, Marlene huffed.

'What the hell? Go ask your boyfriend where he is Lily.' Marlene shot at her. Lily made to protest but Mary just kicked her out of her chair.

'Potter!' Lily gave in, knowing it was for the greater good of getting her friend a snog. James whirled around at record speed to meet her and she pulled up short. She always forgot how on the ball his reflexes were thanks to the hours he spent on the quidditch pitch. Thinking of him in his quidditch gear made her expression falter a little but she tried to dismiss it.

'Why Evans, have you decided to save a broom?' Oh was he on the ball today. He was giving her a wicked grin, matched only by the one of Sirius beside him.

'What?' As soon as Lily encouraged them she wanted to smack herself.

'And ride a quidditch player of course?' James waggled his eyebrows at her behind his glasses and she had to honestly stop herself from laughing. She couldn't navigate her way around the smile so she did the next best things and whipped her wand out and flicked it at him. Removing his glasses with the _accio _charm not only blocked her smile from his vision, it payed him back for the terrible pick up line. She grabbed them and turned to Sirius.

'Black.' She continued after James made a dive for the glasses, missing completely. 'Where is the fourth member of your gang?'

'Gang?' Sirius contemplated this. 'Gosh Prongs, we _are_ a bit of a gang, aren't we?'

'Yeah, mate.' He tried for his glasses again but Lily just stepped aside and he fell. 'Mum wouldn't approve at all.' He muffled out from the floor.

'I disagree.' Peter snatched the glasses from Lily sneakily when her attention was averted.

'Yeah, I reckon she'd prepare us snacks.' Sirius concluded as Peter returned James' glasses to him and helped him to his feet.

'Just tell me where Lupin is you prat's.' Lily shook her head, exasperated already.

'What? Why? Why do you want to know where Moony is? What's going on?' James was fixing his glasses on his face looking all flustered and his free hand went immediately to his hair and ruffled it up quite badly.

'Keep your pants on Potter, Marls wants to see him.' Lily rolled her eyes and tried desperately to hide her smirk of satisfaction that James had definitely just lost his cool because she had wanted to locate one of his friends.

'Ah. Yes. She's noticed that has she?' Sirius craned around from where they were standing to see Marlene. He nodded lightly to her with a charming grin. 'Dear old Moony. He's a bit smitten. Won't admit to it of course.'

'We've noticed.' Lily turned to Sirius now, decided he would be the easiest one to get it out of. 'Marls is going to surprise him.' Lily let her face contort into the wicked grin she'd been holding back. Sirius knew this grin all too well. He was instantly intrigued.

'Everyone likes a surprise.' Sirius surveyed her cautiously. Lily nodded.

'What's the surprise?' James asked beside them, looking between the two. Lily had to honestly fight from launching herself on James at that point. He had never looked cuter. _But he is an arrogant little prat!_ Or at least that's what she yelled at herself inwardly to contain her emotions.

'I have one condition though Evans, for this valuable information.' Sirius puffed up importantly.

'Hey! No conditions with Evans!' James interjected.

'What's the condition?' Lily ignored James and smiled at Sirius. Of course she would agree, even to Sirius, if it meant annoying James Potter.

'Braid my hair?' Sirius smiled suggestively as James' jaw dropped.

'I thought I told you-'

'Sure thing.' Lily smiled easily as James actually punched Sirius after being cut off and generally ignored by the two.

'He's in the library.' Peter offered tiring of the conversation.

'He's with Adams I think.' Sirius added pushing his best friend off himself easily. 'She helps him with his homework or something, not overly sure.'

'Oh. They're not- a thing, are they?'

'No!' Lily was affronted by Sirius's quick reply. She blinked at him a few times. 'Ah, no. No they're just mates I'm sure of it.' Sirius was back to his casual manner so quickly she thought she must have hallucinated it. The others didn't seem to notice it either as James was now pushing Sirius around trying to annoy him.

'Right. Well, thanks.' Lily took the boy's play-fighting as an opportunity to make a clean break and bounced over to the girls. 'He's in the library. Go get 'em.' Lily winked and Marlene got up and made her way to the common room exit, a wide smile on her face as she passed the boys with a salute. Sirius was the only one to return it as James seemed to be too involved in telling him off and Peter wasn't facing her.

As she climbed down the stairs she passed Adams on her way, who was muttering something about "useless bloody prefect. Can't even copy notes properly." To which she ignored. Adams was certainly a far sight better than her dorm mates, but she was very odd and highly strung. Mostly people tended to dodge her in the hallways. Or rather, girls did. The boys would always take their chances with her, as she was fairly pretty.

By the time she got to the library she ducked in trying to avoid the moody librarian. She navigated her way through the maze of books and tried to locate the boy she had on her mind. It wasn't until she got to literally the back of the library that she found him. He seemed to be lost in thought. He was staring at a space above him that held nothing worth attention. She cleared her throat, her determination keen.

Remus looked as if he'd seen a ghost. Or, well, something scarier than a ghost. Colour drained from his lightly scarred face and he looked around attempting to gather up his books.

'Remus I was wondering if I could speak to you for a moment?' Marlene spoke with confidence as she slipped into the chair beside him and forced him back into his seat in the process. Remus did note the informality of his name and the close proximity, his colour returned to his face and then some.

'Uh, s- sure.' His bright eyes were darting around trying to focus on something.

'Well. I've noticed you looking at me.' Marlene was straight to the point. No fluffing around with niceties with her. 'A lot.' She added and Remus stopped trying to look around and fixed his wide eyes on her.

'Y- you have?' She couldn't help but smile at that. He thought he'd been covert, but oh he had not. She nodded. He seemed to be lost for words now.

'I think it would be wise for you to kiss me.' She said this like it was the most casual thing in the world.

'I b-beg your pardon?' He was too bloody polite for his own good. Marlene sighed and grabbed him behind his head and pulled his lips to hers. It really would have been a most awkward exchange if he had protested, but thankfully after the initial shock, he did not. He certainly did not. Marlene wasn't sure what it was that came over him but he indulged her quite willingly.

As she crashed her lips into his, he didn't pull back once. He froze for a second, then copied her and turned his body into a more compatible position. His hand cupped the back of her head, and he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. He was better at this than she thought he would have been. She cheered in her head at her choices winning out as his hand came to rest under her jaw and his tongue brushed against hers. She didn't know what it was that seemed to awaken in him, but he got dominant quite quickly and pulled back, lifted her without a word from her chair and replaced her on the desk. There wasn't a moment lost before he returned to her lips and she happily snaked her arms up around his neck and screamed inwardly when his hands rested on her hips. Then just as his hands started to travel upwards, all of a sudden he stopped, pulled back from their intimate connection and stared at her.

'Sorry. Uh- Just… sorry.' He was still close enough for her to grab him. Which she did before he could withdraw any further.

'What are you saying sorry for? This is fantastic!' At her words his face seemed to change instantly from one of horror at his own actions, to something akin to abashed joy. Marlene grabbed him again and pulled him into her body.

They vaguely heard something crash to the floor close by but both occupants of the progressively inappropriate kiss were too involved in each other to care. Marlene slipped one leg around Remus's back and pulled him closer into her body and felt goose bumps erupt all over her skin when his hands travelled up to her waist. Remus Lupin was severely underestimated in the way of snogging that was for sure.


	18. Chapter 18

Hey all, it's getting a bit hard for me to update this story in 2 places. I know a few of you are enjoying it so I have it on harry potter fan fiction . com under the same name and will continue to update it there. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing. Hope to hear from you over there :)


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